United Arab Emirates is seeking to purchase advanced Israeli radar, according to a report Tuesday evening by Breaking Defense.
According to the report, the UAE embassy in Tel Aviv reached out to the Defense Ministry to determine how Israel would respond to a formal request to send Israel’s Green Pine radar to Abu Dhabi.
Israel Aerospace Industries’ Elta Systems’ Green Pine radar is part of the Arrow multi-layered defense system. The original ELM-2080 Green Pine Radar and its more advanced successor, the ELM-2080S Super Green Pine Radar, use a similar deployment infrastructure as well as a similar integrated logistic support, according to IAI.
The system is designed to intercept ballistic missiles such as those that have recently been intermittently fired at the UAE from Yemen by the Houthi militia, an Iranian proxy group, and can detect and simultaneously track dozens of missiles from long ranges under all weather conditions.
The latest such attack came earlier this week during an official visit to the UAE by Israeli President Isaac Herzog and his wife, First Lady Michal Herzog.
If approved, UAE personnel would receive training in Israel before returning to operate the radar at home. Such a sale would be the first major military technology acquisition deal between Israel and the UAE.
According to sources quoted by Breaking Defense, no decision has been made at this point, with an evaluation of the request to occur in the coming days; should the MoD back the move, the UAE will then file an official request for the system.
