Egypt has unveiled two locally produced drones at the Egypt Defence Expo this week. Co-produced by the Arab Organisation for Industrialisation and the Military Technical College, the Nut drone is capable of performing tactical reconnaissance missions during the day and night using electro-optical technology.
Operators can integrate into the system equipment for satellite communication. It has a maximum mission payload of 50 kilograms and an endurance of 10 hours.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi inspected the Nut drone, named after the ancient Egyptian goddess of the sky, on the first day of the show.
The EJune-30 SW drone was also on display at the Egyptian pavilion. The UAV was produced by Industrial Complex Engineering Robots in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Military Production.
Mohamed al-Kenany, who leads the military studies unit at the Cairo-based Arab Forum for Analysing Iranian Policies said “EJune-30 looks exactly like the Emirati Yabhon United 40 unmanned aerial vehicle. It is highly probable that this is the Egyptian version of the UAV after technology transfer from the UAE to Egypt, but ICER officials at the show didn’t respond to any question regarding this subject at the show.”
The Yabhon United 40 is a medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV capable of autonomous flight operations. It is produced by Adcom Systems for the United Arab Emirates Air Force.
EJune-30 SW can automatically take off and land. It is 8.9 metre long and has a wingspan of 12 metre, a maximum takeoff weight of 1,400 kilograms, a maximum speed of 260 kph, an endurance of 24 hours, and a maximum operating altitude of 7,000 meters.
EDEX 2021 is taking place November 29-December 2 and features pavilions for several countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, France, the United States and South Korea. It’s hosting about 400 exhibitors this year.