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2018-03-19

UMEX, SimTEX 2018 End with Multimillion Dirham Deals

Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, the third edition of the Unmanned Systems Exhibition and Conference (UMEX 2018) and Simulation Exhibition and Conference (SimTEX 2018) concluded with the Armed Forces inking multimillion dirhams defence deals. A specialised conference themed ‘Focusing Next-Generation Technologies on Tomorrow’s Threats’ took place alongside the event.

UMEX and SimTEX 2018 showcased the latest unmanned systems, simulation and training technologies across the full spectrum of civil defence and military segments, including marine, air and land search-and-rescue and aerial photography. Over AED 878.37 million worth of defence deals were signed between the armed forces and specialised local and international companies thanks to the event facilitating new partnerships between participating companies.

The dual three-day event drew 12,400 visitors and was attended by 419 media representatives. A total of 122 international and local exhibitors from 34 countries took part in the event, reflecting the growth and investment in unmanned systems technology across the UAE and GCC countries and reinforcing Abu Dhabi’s status as a preferred destination for specialised global industry events featuring key international players.

UMEX 2018 concluded with an exciting live flying performance by local and international unmanned aircraft at Al Ain International Airport. The UAE-based ADASI was amongst the companies demonstrating the sophisticated manoeuvres and surveillance capabilities of unmanned aerial systems with their ability to capture high-resolution aerial photos, tracing targets with high accuracy and great efficiency.

Humaid Matar Al Dhaheri, Group CEO of Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (ADNEC), said: “We are delighted with the huge success achieved by UMEX and SimTEX 2018 due to the record local and international participation.”

Meanwhile, Brigadier General Rashid Mohammed Al Shamsi, Chairman of the Higher Organising Committee of UMEX and SimTEX 2018, confirmed: “The success of UMEX and SimTEX 2018 validates the high-level efficiency and professionalism of the members of its Organising Committee and sub-committees that included many Emirati talents. This would not have been possible without the unwavering support of the UAE President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the continued follow-up and directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and Their Highnesses Supreme Council Members and Rulers of the Emirates.”

2018 Show Highlights

Sultan Abdulla Al Samahi’s Emirates Defence Companies Council (EDCC) made a maiden appearance at UMEX, aiming to facilitate development and the sharing of new business ideas through relationships with similar international associations.

More than 63 private national defence companies signed an MoU at the EDCC stand to provide a special package of facilities to the Council’s member companies.

Al Marakeb-Tawazun collaboration

This year saw collaboration between USV manufacturer Al Marakeb and Tawazun, the country’s strategic investment firm to fund the B7, Al Marakeb’s first Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) originally introduced in IDEX 2015.

This 7 m model is equipped for security and surveillance, designed and built entirely within UAE manufacturing facilities.

MUM-T enhanced Predator capabilities

Manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) is a leap forward in situational awareness for combat operations in providing ground forces. They present rotary and fixed-wing aircraft pilots with the ability to receive sensor data from an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS).

UAS’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) payloads ensure that decision-making and mission effectiveness are enhanced by sophisticated data links, ground personnel and manned aircraft.

At its core, MUM-T capability enables long endurance, persistent UAS to provide data from its multiple payload options to manned platforms, so enabling the Predator XP to enhance dangerous or monotonous unmanned US Army aviation missions.

Textron System’s Nightwarden

Textron Systems have built on the experience of the last decade’s military operations in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere to provide national armies with a boost to their UAS inventory capabilities.

Textron’s NIGHTWARDEN is a new Group III Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (TUAS) integrating state-of-the-art technology improvements designed to boost the unmanned systems’ overall combat effectiveness and operational performance.

Insitu presents INEXA

Insitu targeted the commercial market at UMEX this year with INEXA Solutions. By leveraging Boeing’s ecosystem of capabilities from seabed to space, INEXA offers remote sensing and information-processing products and services.

IXI showcases DRONEKILLER

IXI technology presented counter-UAS technology called DRONEKILLER at UMEX 2018. It is the first hand-held Counter UAS technology to use Software Defined Radios capable of disabling small Class I and Class II UAS operating on all major global C2 and GNSS bands out to effective LOS. Compact and lightweight when deployed by ground force personnel, the DRONEKILLER can operate in mobile units, strike teams, at checkpoints, forward outposts and security response teams.

CAE Naval Training

In addition to its recent CAE Rise training system for the civil aviation market, CAE is leading the design and development of a comprehensive Naval Training Centre (NTC) for the UAE. The project is progressing towards its planned commissioning in 2019, with the objective of enabling the increased operational capability of naval warships and supporting aircraft.

CAE will deploy an innovative training solution to enhance individual, team and collective naval training. The NTC has, for instance, facilitated CAE’s selection of VSTEP to provide a suite of custom-built ship bridge simulators, while the new NAUTIS 3 full-mission bridge simulators is reconfigurable for various Navy vessels.

WB Electronics integrated solutions

WB Electronics has been active in the field of UAVs for over 15 years as part of the WB Group. This year the company showcased WARMATE, a new product in the WB Electronics portfolio. It can be used as an independent system, transported by a sub-division of Land or Special Forces.

Mirach-40 high-performance capabilities

Leonardo displayed the new Mirach-40 (M-40) target drone at UMEX, enabling testing and training with advanced weapon systems. The M-40 drone can mimic enemy threats realistically to allow crew training with weapon systems such as surface-to-air radar-guided missile systems.

Leonardo announced that its RPAS Falco family has logged more than 15,000 hours of operational flight altogether. Leonardo’s Falco family of Remotely-Piloted Air Systems (RPAS) has been extremely successful in the Middle East. The company’s latest Falco Evo has recently debuted with the first of its two launch customers in the Middle East and Gulf region.

Leonardo is also seeing increased interest in its ‘drones-as-a-service’ offering according to Fabrizio Boggiani, SVP Support & Service Solutions for Leonardo, who confirmed that “We’re getting great feedback from potential customers in the region.”

Nexter’s multi-mission robots

Nexter Robotics is a Nexter group subsidiary fully dedicated to the development of unmanned military and security systems. The company displayed its small multi-mission tactical robots and heavy robotic vehicles (wheeled and tracked) at UMEX for reconnaissance, road opening, automatic logistics transportation and combat.

Milrem Next-Gen THeMIS UGV

Now equipped with autonomous capabilities, Milrem Robotics’ unmanned ground vehicle has been upgraded specifically for hot climates and desert terrain.

Naval Group air-raid drones

Naval Group introduced their new rotary-wing air-raid drone VSR-700 to UMEX 2018, a product developed in partnership with Airbus. The VSR-700 can exceed 10 flight hours of operational autonomy with a payload capacity of up to 150 kg.

The VSR-700 is developed from a light civilian helicopter, weighing 700 kg with optional manning. Naval Group also presented their real time I4Drones system, consisting of the coordinated deployment of three-drone operations on air, surface and in submarines.

Eli’s Drone Nest demonstration

The Eli Drone Nest provides a new dimension of autonomy to the already-operational ELIX-XL multirotor platform. As UMEX 2018 demonstrated, an installed Drone Nest provides an operational radius of 5 km, while the network can deliver visual information from a vast land area.

Lockheed Martin UAS

Lockheed Martin’s unmanned technologies enable their unmanned aerial systems to operate farther and more efficiently in harsh or dangerous conditions thanks to smart components that ultimately help users to make intelligent decisions.

“The unmanned aerial systems showcased at UMEX primarily include the Fury, the Desert Hawk and the Indago Quadcopter,” Steven Fortson, Business Development Manager, Lockheed Martin Unmanned Systems revealed to Nation Shield. “Fury is a long-endurance, survivable Unmanned Aerial System that brings strategic capabilities to the market. With the largest payload capacity and volume among runway-independent UAS and its advanced heavy fuel propulsion system, best in class power generation and low signature design, Fury can support any Intelligence, Surveillance Reconnaissance and IEW requirement. It is the best value aircraft for ISR and IEW.”

UMS SKELDAR Gulf UAVs

For UMS SKELDAR, the Saab and UMS AERO joint venture, the Gulf region is of special interest thanks to some exciting developments taking place there.

The SKELDAR V-200 and R-350 offer unmatched capabilities thanks to advanced sensors and detection payloads, including advanced LiDAR and Sentinent Vision’s innovative, next-gen ViDAR (Visual Detection and Ranging). ViDAR is an airborne persistent wide area maritime search system capable of detecting objects autonomously on the ocean surface.

Robot Aviation surveillance drones

Robot Aviation is a Norwegian company with offices in the US and Poland at the forefront of drone technology development for over 10 years. They presented their complete line of systems at UMEX 2018, including the Spy Owl, a high mobility system carrying thermo & video cameras, hand-launched within minutes and able to stay airborne for two hours.

UMEX 2018 Deals

The UAE Armed Forces signed a series of deals during the three-day event. In all, 10 defence deals worth AED 294.225 million were signed on the third day of the exhibition. Nine deals worth AED 292.492 million were signed on the second day, while the first day saw the signing of 10 deals worth AED 291.654 million taking the total value of deals signed to AED 878.371 million.

These were the key contracts:

• Multiple contracts were signed with the UAE-based Abu Dhabi Autonomous Systems Investments (ADASI). The first contract was valued at AED 70.673 million for the renewal of technical support for UAV systems for 24 months. The second contract, worth AED 34.626 million, involves the purchase of spare parts for an UAV.

• UMEX 2018 saw an AED 122,153 deal with the TRUST International for the maintenance and repair of nano NUAS PD-100 BLACK HORNET PRS aircraft systems. There was also an AED 719,000 deal with Computer and Power Technology for the purchase of training systems, including supplements for luggage and baggage inspection.

• Two contracts were signed with South Africa’s DENEL DYNAMICS to increase the financing of technical support allocation for Seeker 2 unmanned aircraft systems. The first contract was worth AED 14.720 million and the second valued at AED 11.040 million

• An AED 130.391 million deal with CAE Maritime Middle East L.L.C (Canada) was concluded for the purchase and installation of equipment for the Blackhawk and Bell aircrafts.

• An AED 5.640 million deal was signed with JSC RPC ‘KBM’ from Russia for the purchase and supply of rocket propellants.

• An AED 44.076 million deal was signed with US-based Insitu for providing technical support for UAV (The Integrator), while an AED 22 million deal was concluded with Insitu from the US for the purchase of four Integrator aircraft.

• Two deals were signed with INOVEX Simulation & Training Ltd from Switzerland. One deal was worth AED 4.285 million for providing technical and training support for the operation and maintenance of BMB 3 machine simulators and the other was an AED 12.120 million deal to develop and extend the virtual life of a driving simulator.

• Al Tuff International from the UAE won an AED 41.274 million deal for the purchase of 8 UAV (PUMMA AE III) with all their accessories.

• An AED 78,061 deal was completed with Advanced Media from the UAE for the purchase of 10 UAV (MAVIC Pro) for demonstration purposes.

• An AED 31.310 million deal was inked with Motion Reality Incorporated for the upgrade of 2 training simulators (VIRTSIM) from DAUNTLESS, along with the purchase of a DAUNTLESS training simulator.

• The UAE-based International Golden Group (IGG) won an AED 16.627 million deal to update joint fire simulators, as well as acquiring a joint-fire CUTS208 simulator with accessories.

• The Armed Forces also signed an AED 47.749 million deal with Cubic Defense Applications from the US for the operation and maintenance of training simulators for small arms shooting over 30 sites.

Text/Photo: www.umexabudhabi.ae

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