Ukrainian defense company Fire Point, as part of an agreement to sell a stake in its capital to the EDGE defense group, which is owned by the sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates, is considering the construction of a spaceport in the UAE and activities related to a missile program, Fire Point CTO Iryna Terekh said.
“Ukraine has always had a very strong space programme, but like any other European country, we gave it up and abandoned it, so we want to revive it,” she said during a discussion at the Ukrainian House in Davos on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.
According to her, the company plans to have its own space program in the future.
The Fire Point CTO clarified that an official announcement of the details regarding cooperation with the UAE is expected by the end of the first quarter of this year.
At the end of December, it was reported that EDGE intends to acquire a 30% stake in Fire Point, which produces the FP-1 and FP-2 drones of the same name, as well as Flamingo missiles. At that time, BBC News Ukraine, citing confidential sources within the company familiar with the deal, reported that the transaction is worth about $760 million, while the total valuation of the Ukrainian arms manufacturer was estimated at $2.5 billion. According to the outlet, Fire Point has already submitted the necessary documents to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine.
The defense company Fire Point was founded in 2022 by Denys Shtilerman and Yehor Skalyha, with Iryna Terekh joining later.
According to information on its website, the EDGE defense group was established in 2019 and is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE. It unites more than 35 organizations across six main clusters: platforms and systems; missiles and armaments; space and cyber technologies; commercial operations (EDGE Commercial); technology and innovation; and national security.
