Milkor to open offices in the UAE

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Milkor is opening its second international office, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as it cements ties with the UAE defence industry.

The UAE office will be officially launched at the IDEX 2021 defence show in February next year along with several UAE-owned products. One of these, 100% owned by the UAE division of Milkor, is Milkor’s biggest to date, the company revealed.

“Our local presence will give us the ability to interact on a vast array of partnership opportunities, collaborations and joint developments with a more dynamic and timely approach. We’ve had to concentrate on many different aspects of our business model but most importantly our timing had to be perfect, we’ve been strategizing for months with late nights and a lot of coffee to make this happen,” Julian Coetzee, CEO of Milkor UAE, said.

Coetzee said Milkor has been planning on establishing local capability and a permanent presence in the UAE for a long time, and is something the company has been focussed on for the last couple of years.

The UAE division will drive strategic partnerships with major defence players established in the UAE.

Milkor opened its first international office in New Delhi, India, in February this year. At the time, Milkor India Managing Director Luciano Jardim said it was just the first of many to come as Milkor invests into one or two countries per continent.

Milkor continues to expand its product range as it seeks to become a specialist in the fields of unmanned aerial vehicles, armoured vehicles, infantry weapons and naval vessels. It is targeting South America, the Middle East and Far East markets with its new products.

These include its 4×4 armoured vehicle, MN Centurion patrol boat, which can be optionally unmanned, its unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) range (MA80 and MA380) and grenade launchers. Milkor is also working on guided weapons for its UAVs. The company recently launched an Integrated Systems division covering communications, controls, autonomy and navigation, platform integration and integrated mission systems. This complements its cyber defence capability. On the humanitarian side it is manufacturing ventilators in response to the coronavirus pandemic.