The UAE: A Revolution in Defense Industries or a Concealed Monopoly over Domestic Markets

How did the United Arab Emirates manage to achieve defense exports worth 2.3 billion dollars, which is roughly fourteen times Egypt’s defense exports? And when it comes to defense revenues, the UAE generates about thirty times that of Egypt. So, is the Emirati defense model truly as successful as it is claimed to be?

The UAE represents a unique case in defense economics; it is a country that combines success in numbers with significant underlying challenges, to the point that there are widespread campaigns to boycott Emirati defense products. These boycotts are not due to ethical concerns, but rather market-related reasons, with accusations that the UAE’s practices have harmed several companies and industries in countries that entered the same market.

Let’s take a comprehensive look at the story of the UAE in the defense industries.

The UAE stands out as one of the few nations that decided to build its defense sector not from the standpoint of “an army that needs weapons,” but from the standpoint of “an economy that seeks industry.” In other words, it approached defense industrialization through a purely commercial and strategic lens, seeing it as an opportunity to assert regional and international influence.