The Brazilian Navy launches a MANSUP prototype during a 2019 test.
Abu Dhabi-based defense company EDGE Group has acquired a 50% stake in Brazilian precision-guided munitions producer SIATT, further expanding links between the Middle Eastern and Brazilian aerospace and defense industries.
The move will help the UAE company focus new products on the Latin American market, with a special focus on Brazil, said Mansour AlMulla, EDGE Group’s CEO.
“Together with SIATT, we aim to become relevant market players in high-tech defense systems,” AlMulla said.
The acquisition gives EDGE an equal stake in a company that currently builds the Anti-ship National Surface Missile and the Antitank Surface-to-Surface missile for the Brazilian military.
SIATT acquired both programs in 2017 from the sale by Odebrecht of assets of the former Brazilian missile maker Mectron. SIATT’s founders also started Mectron in 1991.
The investment “will enable us to benefit from EDGE’s scale and international multi-domain experience to jointly develop the next generation of smart weapons solutions for our respective armed forces, and other defense customers,” said Rogerio Salvador, SIATT's CEO.
The move follows increasing links between Brazilian industry and companies in the Middle East. UAE-based Calidus, for example, acquired the design and tooling from Brazil’s Novaer to develop the turboprop-powered B-250 counter-insurgency aircraft. Brazilian aerospace engineering services firm Akaer also has helped Saudi Arabia’s Intra design the first Samoom uncrewed aircraft system.
