01 March 2023

Serbia orders loitering munitions from UAE

by Igor Bozinovski

The Halcon RW-24 loitering munition. (Edge)

The Serbian Armed Forces (SAF) will become the first foreign customer for loitering munitions produced by the United Arab Emirates' (UAE's) Edge Group, according to a Serbian press report.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced on the opening day of the IDEX 2023 show, held in Abu Dhabi from 20 to 24 February, that his country was negotiating to buy UAE-made loitering munitions he did not identify.

Although there was no official announcement that this deal was concluded, Večernje Novosti , a Belgrade-based newspaper close to the government, reported on 25 February that it was finalised by the Serbian Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Edge and likely covered the RW-24 developed by the Emirati company's Halcon subsidiary.

It did not report the value of the deal or the quantity of munitions involved, but said the weapons could be delivered in six months and some components may be produced in Serbia.

During the Southeast Europe Aviation Summit held in Belgrade in May 2021, Nenad Miloradović, the assistant minister for material resources in the MoD, said that Serbia was working closely with the UAE on the RW-24. He said the Čačak-based Sloboda company was working on warheads weighing between 8 and 13 kg, and the Zemun-based Teleoptik-Žiroskopi company on developing an imaging infrared (IIR) seeker.

Edge states that the catapult-launched RW-24 weighs 45 kg with an 8 kg payload, has an endurance of more than 180 minutes, and a range of around 100 km. It promotes it as an autonomous global navigation satellite services (GNSS)-guided weapon that can be upgraded with an electro-optical seeker for improved accuracy.

The Serbian Armed Forces (SAF) will become the first foreign customer for loitering munitions produc...

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