UAE to Fund New Italian UAV

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A United Arab Emirates (UAE) investment fund has beefed up its stake in Italian firm Piaggio Aero. This comes just as the aeronautics firm is getting ready for the debut flight of its P.1HH Hammerhead drone, which is will take place at Sicily’s Trapani Air Base.

Mubadala, the US $55 billion fund, set up by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in 2002, increased its stake in Piaggio Aero from 33 to 41 percent on Nov. 12. This forms part of an equity increase of €190 million (US $255 million), which also saw Tata Ltd., a UK offshoot of India’s Tata Group, increase its stake from 33 to 44.5 percent.

Italian private investor Piero Ferrari has increased his stake from 1 to 2 percent, while hedge fund HDI has dropped from 33 to 12.5 percent. This means that Mubadala and Tata are now the main financial backers of the developers of Italian-built Hammerhead, which is an unmanned version of Piaggio Aero’s main seller, the P.180 twin-prop business aircraft.

Following two years of development, the Hammerhead completed its first engine start and runway taxi in February. Testing has been shifted from Italian Air Force facilities in Sardinia, Galassi added. “The program has attracted the interest of the shareholders,” he said, adding that “a lot” of the new capital pumped into the firm will be devoted to continuing development of the UAS.

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Like the P.180, the Hammerhead features two pusher propellers and canards on the nose. It offers a 15.5-meter wing span, maximum takeoff weight of 6,146 kilograms and will fly to 45,000 feet with 16 hours endurance. The company claims it can get to a target faster and stay on target longer than rivals. To meet its current UAS needs, the UAE has meanwhile purchased the export version of the General Atomics Predator A, the XP, which has been marketed to non-NATO countries.

Despite the UAE money behind the Hammerhead, the first military to show interest in the UAS has been Italy’s. Taking many by surprise, Italian procurement chief Gen. Claudio Debertolis said at this summer’s Paris Air Show that Italy may buy 10 of the aircraft, adding that he was also tipping the UAV as a candidate for a common European medium-altitude, long-endurance program and would assist in promoting it to other countries.

Italy and the UAE have discussed UAV development before. In 2009, the gulf state selected the Italian M-346 jet trainer, but the deal stalled, allegedly over problems related to a side deal on UAVs. At the Paris Air Show, Debertolis said Italy would consider arming the Hammerhead. Meanwhile, Galassi said Piaggio Aero is not yet thinking about arming the UAV. “We are not weaponizing the Hammerhead; that is not in development now,” he said.