A tiny prototype drone has been developed by BAE Systems and the first 30 units have been sent to the British Army as part of a trial.
The engineering giant collaborated with UK drone maker Uavtek to develop the nano “Bug” drone, an unmanned aerial vehicle that weighs about the same as a standard smartphone and boasts a 40-minute battery life and two-kilometre range.
The drone can fly in winds of more than 80kph. It was the only nano-drone able to cope with the uncompromising weather during a recent Army Warfighting Experiment event hosted by the Ministry of Defence’s Future Capability Group.
This Uavtek promo video shows the drone in action.
"Our experience in developing large volumes of secure hardware means we were able to help the team turn the excellent design into a real product that our Armed Forces can use," said James Gerard, principal technologist at BAE's Applied Intelligence business.
Innovations at the annual experiment event are designed to explore emerging technology and identify specific capabilities.
This year's focus was on the Agile Command, Control and Communications space suitable for rapid exploitation.
Emphasis is placed on innovations that push the boundaries of technology and military capability, testing a range of prototype systems by putting them in the hands of the user while giving military feedback to suppliers.
BAE and Uavtek are now working on the next developments of the nano-drone, exploring sensing equipment and capabilities that could be added, and how it could be integrated with other military equipment.
Boris Johnson in November pledged £16.5 billion ($22.47bn) to the defence budget over four years.
The extra funds are on top of a commitment to increase the existing £41.5bn budget by 0.5 percentage points above inflation.
Taken together, the increase amounts to £21.5bn until March 2025, and insiders said it would mean the UK remained Europe’s biggest defence spender.
Experts said the windfall represented the largest real-term increase in the defence budget since Margaret Thatcher’s premiership.
Mr Johnson said he decided to boost spending on the armed forces “in the teeth of the pandemic” because “the defence of the realm must come first”.
He is also keen to show US president-elect Joe Biden that the UK wants a strong military capability after Brexit.
But Mr Johnson also confirmed a delay for the government's long-awaited integrated review of the armed forces until the New Year.
The review will set out the UK's global priorities, and will include an assessment of the security risks facing the nation and how the British forces are adapting to meet them.
While speaking of reform this month, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace this month warned that "we are no longer leading and innovating enough", giving a range of threats including missile technology.
"We are in danger of being prepared only for the big fight that may never come, while our adversaries might choose to outflank it even if it does," Mr Wallace said.
"Some tough choices will still have to be made. But those choices will allow us to invest in new domains, new equipment and new ways of working."
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
