EDGE Group is moving to turn a collection of European investments into a more integrated regional business, using its Paris headquarters to coordinate acquisitions, partnerships and industrial expansion. The United Arab Emirates-based defence group is also examining further takeovers and joint ventures, with the Nordic countries emerging as one of its next target markets.
The company will make its debut at DALO Industry Days in Denmark, where it plans to promote air defence, counter-drone and autonomous systems. EDGE also intends to use the event to assess potential investments in established Nordic companies and smaller technology businesses.
Founded in November 2019 and headquartered in Abu Dhabi, EDGE is an advanced technology and defence group comprising more than 35 entities. Its activities cover platforms and systems, missiles and weapons, space technologies, secure intelligence systems, technologies & industrialisation, and homeland security. The group now employs about 19,000 people and secured order intake of just under $8 billion in 2025, according to Chambers. Around 70% of that business came from exports, reflecting a rapid increase in the company’s international exposure since its formation.
EDGE has more than 2.3 million square metres of covered manufacturing facilities, Chambers said. Roughly 70% to 75% of that footprint remains in the UAE, with the balance located in countries where the group has acquired or invested in companies.
“When EDGE was established in 2019, we were doing around $50 million of export business and probably had closer to 3,000 or 4,000 employees,” Chambers said. “The scale of growth has been immense over that time, partly through acquisitions, but there has also been a strong focus on how we have grown the international business.”
Europe already accounts for a substantial part of EDGE’s overseas industrial network. Its portfolio includes the German firearms manufacturers Merkel and Haenel, Estonia-based Milrem Robotics, Swiss unmanned helicopter specialist ANAVIA and Polish aircraft manufacturer FLARIS.
The group has also agreed to acquire an 80% stake in Italian propulsion company CMD. Its wider European network includes joint ventures with Fincantieri and Indra Sistemas, together with strategic partnerships involving Leonardo and Safran.
Chambers said EDGE’s acquisition strategy was not designed to transfer technology, intellectual property or production capacity from Europe to the UAE. Instead, the group has invested in expanding the companies and industrial facilities it acquired.
Milrem Robotics has added production capacity in Tallinn, while ANAVIA has opened new production and research facilities in Switzerland. EDGE plans to follow a similar model when evaluating other opportunities in Europe.
“These acquisitions have not been about acquiring technology, lifting that technology out and bringing that intellectual property to the UAE,” Chambers said. “To the contrary, we have invested in those markets, built new production facilities and expanded the size of the teams and the respective companies.”
“This is about building capability in Europe for Europe,” he added. “These are things we were already doing even before the current drive for strategic autonomy in Europe.”
The Paris office gives EDGE a central base from which to oversee its European operations and manage relations with governments, customers and industrial partners. The group also plans to establish an engineering and manufacturing facility in the Bordeaux region.
That operation is expected to adapt technologies from EDGE’s existing portfolio to European requirements. It will also work with local partners to develop products, establish supply chains and increase production within Europe.
“In the Bordeaux region, we will look at bringing certain technologies from the EDGE portfolio, localising them in Europe and working with partners to develop and tailor those products to the specific needs of the European context,” Chambers said. “We will also look at localising the supply chain across the European market.”
“It is very much about coming not necessarily as a competitor, but as a partner to existing industry and to end users looking for key technologies that can be brought to market quickly and innovatively,” he added.
That approach reflects the political and industrial priorities shaping European defence procurement. Governments are seeking greater control over supply chains, domestic manufacturing capacity and access to sensitive technologies following years of constrained production and rising security demands.
Chambers said EDGE recognised that European customers increasingly expected defence systems to be produced and supported locally. The planned investment in CMD, particularly in propulsion systems for unmanned aircraft and loitering munitions, is intended to support that model.
Partnerships with major international defence companies are central to the group’s expansion strategy. Chambers described industrial cooperation as part of EDGE’s corporate DNA rather than a secondary route to market.
“Partnership has always been a cornerstone of the Emirates and also of EDGE,” he said. “I do not believe there is any one company that can come and deliver everything that is needed, so our goal in the European market is very much to do that together with partners in Europe.”
EDGE sees autonomous systems as one of its strongest areas of technology. Its portfolio spans unmanned aerial vehicles, loitering munitions, drone interceptors, unmanned ground vehicles and unmanned surface vessels.
Chambers said the group’s investment in propulsion gives it greater control over the development and production of those systems. Ownership of both platform and engine technologies reduces its dependence on outside suppliers and supports faster development cycles.
“Relying on others for propulsion systems will always be a limitation,” he said. “Today, being fully vertically integrated — not just designing and developing the platforms, but also owning the propulsion system development and manufacturing — is a key advantage that we can bring to the European market.”
Long-range and deep-strike weapons are another area where EDGE expects European demand to increase. Chambers said armed forces would need such systems in much larger quantities, placing pressure on manufacturers to reduce unit costs and expand production capacity.
“There is continued and growing demand across Europe for long-range and deep-strike capability, and the ability to provide it cost-effectively is critical,” he said. “Scale is needed — we need tens of thousands of this type of capability — and industry has to be able to deliver it at an affordable cost.”
EDGE is also promoting its ability to make rapid hardware and software changes in response to operational experience. Chambers said the company had updated counter-drone and electronic-warfare systems within a day during a recent conflict in the region.
“We were taking lessons learned in the afternoon, working through the evening and rolling out updates to our counter-drone systems and jamming technology in the field the very next day,” he said. “That ability for rapid innovation needs to be part of the DNA of an organisation, not something that happens merely as a by-product of the environment.”
Manufacturing facilities must also be designed to move quickly from routine output to surge production, Chambers said. Companies cannot assume that they will have time to construct new factories and recruit hundreds of employees after demand rises.
“We need to be able to move from steady-state production to surge production very rapidly,” he said. “We need to be able to do that in weeks, not in months and certainly not in years.”
EDGE’s appearance at DALO Industry Days will extend that strategy into the Nordic market. Chambers said the company expected strong regional demand for layered air defence, covering both strategic interception and lower-cost responses to unmanned threats.
“Countries are looking at how they implement counter-drone solutions with jamming and spoofing,” he said. “We have a wide and well-proven portfolio that was deployed in the UAE and used successfully to intercept the majority of the incoming drone threats that the country faced.”
The group will also present interceptor systems such as SHADOW-3 and VORTEX-E. Chambers said these products could give armed forces additional options for selecting the most appropriate and economical response to different aerial threats.
Demand is not limited to conventional military operations or border security. Nordic countries are also investing in systems to defend energy facilities, transport networks and other critical infrastructure against unmanned aircraft.
EDGE will use the exhibition to explore potential industrial partnerships across the region. Chambers said acquisitions remained an option, but investments and joint ventures could provide alternative routes into Nordic markets.
“We continue looking not just at acquisitions, but also joint ventures,” he said. “That could take many forms — a joint venture, an investment or an acquisition that can act as a catalyst for our expansion into those markets.”
The group is also interested in smaller Nordic companies developing autonomous, propulsion and defence technologies. Chambers cited the development of Milrem Robotics as an example of how investment could help a specialist business expand into a major international supplier.
“There are often great start-up companies across the Nordic region that are eager for investment,” Chambers said. “We are open to having those conversations, and hopefully we will see some of that when we are at DALO.”
Europe is expected to become a larger contributor to EDGE’s revenue as the group adds production, acquisitions and partnerships across the region. Chambers described the opening of a permanent headquarters in Paris as a natural step in the company’s transition from a UAE-centred manufacturer into a broader international defence group.
