X Island is where EDGE tests its most secret weapons
X Island, which symbolizes the unknown..
At the Dubai Airshow 2023, which is currently taking place, EDGE announced the unique and only island in the region owned by the most secret weapons manufacturing company in previous years. The “X” field is an international multi-disciplinary facility for testing and evaluating defense, air and commercial products, and a training ground for law enforcement agencies. Law & Defense, Field..with a variety of advanced equipment and tools, it will provide comprehensive testing services across the areas of air, land, sea and electronic warfare operations.
Island X contains four weapons testing fields, which are as follows:
1 - “X” Square - Northern Sector:
A coastal line designated for amphibious landing training and exercises
Shooting ranges and modern training facilities
Detailed urban training village simulating close combat, physical combat, and rappelling training
2 - “X” Square - Eastern Sector:
A lighted concrete runway measuring 3,800 x 60 meters and fully operational
Test areas for drones
A center for planning tests and a center for field control
Surveillance radar
The latest digital systems for remote measurements
Vehicle testing facility
A large hangar for drones
Accommodation, office, storage and workshop facilities for clients
3 - “X” Square - Southern Sector:
Air propulsion tests
Environmental stress tests
A pyrotechnic testing and instrumentation facility with a crew cabin and a control cabin
Directed energy weapons tests
GPS spoofing and signal jamming tests
A floating dock with a crew cabin and a control cabin
4 - “X” Square - Western Sector:
A 1,200-meter concrete runway for drones
Mobile robotic targets to directly test fire support weapons
An area designated for missile targets
Mobile display platforms
EDGE, one of the world's leading and fastest growing defense and advanced technology groups, today announced the launch of Field X, the first international facility and training ground for testing and evaluating defense, aerospace and commercial products in the GCC region. It will be fielded partway through its development process and will provide comprehensive, state-of-the-art proprietary testing services and facilities for major and sub-platforms and systems across air, land and maritime operational domains as well as electronic warfare.
The group unveiled the “X” field during the first day of the Dubai Airshow 2023. The field will provide advanced and exemplary testing capabilities with industry-leading mobile equipment and tools. It will also provide detailed data and analysis that will accelerate the development of infantry weapons, smart weapons, and autonomous systems. , ships, command, control, communications, computer, information, intelligence and surveillance systems, as well as target identification, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare solutions. It will also be made available for commercial use of third-party customer service categories in the future.
Mansour Al-Mulla, Managing Director and CEO of EDGE Group, said: “X-Field provides advanced, comprehensive and flexible testing capabilities in the Middle East, Africa, Central and South Asia regions. The announcement of the pioneering facility comes after diligent preparations and a tireless pursuit of obtaining the latest defense technologies and testing fields.” This comes in line with the growth strategy adopted by the EDGE Group, as the “X” field represents a compelling testimony to our commitment to improving defense and security capabilities globally and locally, and will also become a strategic asset to ensure the security of the region in the future and in a sustainable manner.”
The field is located on a high-security island with an area of 350 square kilometers, and includes a 3,800-meter-long runway for large aircraft, and a 1,200-meter-long runway for drones within a no-fly zone that is always closed up to an altitude of 10,000 feet, with the possibility of expanding this to much higher altitudes. The island was also equipped with a detailed urban training village to simulate special operations, a digital communications network that provides safe coverage of the island, and a coastline designated for naval exercises and rehearsal for landing operations.
Conventional ground and air munitions, as well as directed energy weapons and signal jammers, can also be tested within an electronic warfare framework, using high-resolution video, high-level telemetry and data acquisition systems. All of this is supported by various tools to control and monitor assets and advanced radars that track semicircular coverage. While passive radio monitoring establishes a known environment to facilitate scientific testing of electronic warfare products.
The “X” field is equipped to handle drone performance and missile flight guidance tests. The field will soon provide fire testing for helicopters, environmental stress testing for land vehicles, facilities for environmental testing, hard situation testing for offshore platforms, and performance analysis of surface platforms including magnetic ranges and signatures. The field will also soon allow assessment of mobility, targeting, communication, and function tests under a variety of conditions and situations.
On a similar note, Omar Al Zaabi, Head of the Trade and Mission Support Sector at EDGE Group, said: “We are achieving our goal of becoming the first defense testing field in the Middle East and North Africa region, and thus ensuring that our local and international customers have access to the latest testing solutions available in the market, which are available here.” In the United Arab Emirates, we are proud to launch the X-Field, which will enable our customers and partners to expand their reach to new heights and depths across various combat environments.”
In this video, we see the REACH-S plane on X Island and part of its features are shown..
