Patricia Marins
Recently, the EDGE group has signed several partnerships in Brazil. However, last week, the company acquired 50% of the Brazilian SIATT, a company that develops the MANSUP anti-ship missile, which directly competes with the EXOCET Missile manufactured by the European MBDA company.
The latest version of the MBDA missile has a range of 200km, while the initial version of the MANSUP missile only has a range of 70km.
To address this disadvantage, SIATT and TurnoMachine (another Brazilian company that has partnered with EDGE) are planning to develop a new turbofan engine for the MANSUP missile. I recently had discussions with representatives from these two companies, and they have set their sights on achieving a range of 190km-230km using this new engine.
The EXOCET missile’s credibility among Latin countries suffered after the Argentine-British war, where numerous missiles en route to Argentina were allegedly sabotaged by the British with information provided by the French.
What are the opportunities at hand?
At least 12 navies in South America and Africa, including Brazil and South Africa, are currently operating the older versions of the EXOCET missile. This represents a multi-billion-dollar market that could potentially expand to Arab countries.
The EXOCET missile’s credibility among Latin countries suffered after the Argentine-British war, where numerous missiles en route to Argentina were allegedly sabotaged by the British with information provided by the French.
Another aspect to consider is the range. Most of these operators are still using older versions of the EXOCET missile, which gives SIATT/EDGE time to further develop their long range version of the MANSUP.
The EDGE group is also leveraging its influence in the Arab world to gain market share in this competitive landscape. Additionally, their CEO in Latin America, a former Brazilian defense minister, intends to utilize his influence to penetrate the South American and Africa markets.
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