Inside XRANGE: The Secretive Middle Eastern Island Built for Weapons Testing

- [Sam] There's a private island in the Middle East that most people don't even know exists. Located 100 kilometers outside of Abu Dhabi, on an uninhabited stretch of land, larger than most major cities, this island was built for one purpose, to test military technology the rest of the world never gets to see. It's called XRANGE. And until a few months ago, I had never even heard of it. But as I started digging into its history, I learned something interesting. It's owned and operated by the Edge Group. An Emirati defense company focused on autonomous technology. Edge is positioning itself as a global player, developing homegrown defense tech to compete with some of the biggest names in the industry.

While as someone who spent years covering aerospace and defense, I knew this was a place I needed to see for myself. So I decided to shoot my shot. I reached out to the Edge Group on the most secure communication platform I had available, Instagram. And as it turns out, they're fans of the channel. After some convincing, they agreed to not only let me visit their secretive island, but invited me to demo some of their most advanced military vehicles and technologies. (upbeat music) (Sam laughing) - N35 (indistinct).

- Thank you. (upbeat music) So after 16 hours of travel and a flight halfway around the world, I finally landed in the UAE, having no idea what I was about to experience, but excited to officially kick off my visit to XRANGE Island. (gentle music) Now, one of the biggest questions I had was how do you actually access XRANGE Island? Is it by boat? Is it by helicopter?

Is it by airplane? Well, it's actually by bridge, which makes this island pretty accessible to those who are granted access inside. (gentle music) Now, we're supposed to meet our guide at exactly 0900, and then we'll have a few hours to explore everything we can on this island, including its secrets. (car engine revving) (car tires crunching) Hello. - Sam. - Nice to meet you. - I'm Harry. Welcome to XRANGE. - Thank you so much.

It's been a long journey to get here, but I can already tell this is gonna be amazing. - Fantastic. Well, thank you for coming down. I'm glad you found us. So if you're ready, we've got a long day plan for you today. So what we'll do is we wanna take you on a bit of a tour around the island, show you the various range zones, the various facilities, and then if you're up for it a little bit later on, we want to give you a whole product demo. - Heck yeah. And you can't tell me that this is our ride.

- This is the Ajban, armor-protected vehicle, and we have this for the next few hours for you. (upbeat music) So, Sam, this is our main runway we have here at XRANGE. It's 3.8 kilometers long. This thing is as big as most major international airports that you'll find. You know, you can land pretty much whatever aircraft you want on it. So not only do we have the runway space here, but we also support that with hangers and other support services for a variety of tests, different types of UAVs, different aircraft, et cetera, here on XRANGE.

- Yeah, I feel like this is any test pilot's dream runway, how long it is. - Absolutely. - Is it only autonomous aircraft you're landing here or do you guys have manned aircraft as well? - No, so we have had manned aircraft land here as well. And don't forget, this is only one of four runways we have here on XRANGE as well. - Now, the island is further broken down into four distinct sectors. XRANGE North includes a dedicated shoreline for amphibious training and exercises, including shooting ranges in an urban training village, specifically designed

for close quarters battle or CQB. XRANGE East is where flight operations take place. XRANGE South focuses on a wide variety of test areas, including everything from aerial propulsion to environmental stress testing. And finally, XRANGE West was designed specifically for unmanned aircraft, featuring a smaller 1200 foot concrete runway or 360 meters in addition to facilities for robotic moving targets in missile testing. Like I said, it's impressive. And I feel like I could spend an entire week out here and still not see it all. But with the time that we do have, our goal is to cover as much of it as we possibly can.

(gentle music) So one thing I did not expect to see out here are flamingos. Apparently, they're a local legend around these parts. And even though this is a bombing range, a test range in a private military island, they still treat their wildlife pretty well. (upbeat music) Well, this is a spectacular view. - It is. This is the best view on the island. So this is what we call The Hill. So this overlooks the entirety of the land air we have here. So out here, 350 square kilometers of flexible range use space for air platforms, land platforms, et cetera. And the reason this hill is here is we use it to raise our instrumentation above the ground. So for example, if we're bringing things out here

like telemetry, electro optic trackers, et cetera, this is an excellent vantage point with to be able to record and see what's going on below. - And what about this area out here? To me it almost like a bombing range. Is that what it's used for? - That's exactly what it's used for. So you are now stood in what is known as our D-2 range. We have two live fire ranges, D-1 and D-2, which extend out before you here. So this is all ground to ground, air to ground, anything that you really need.

You know, we've tested everything right up to, you know, short range air defense weapons, that kind of thing. (upbeat music) So, Sam, what you're looking at here is one of 13 RF and instrumentation towers we have on the island here. They spread all around the island, effectively create like a mesh network for all our communications and data. So it effectively enables us to securely and wirelessly transmit data from any point on the island back to our main command and control hub, which is at the airfield. - And is this the highest point on the entire island right here? - This is the highest point on the entire island, and the other is dotted around at various different locations to give us 100% coverage of the island.

So whether we're operating on the land or just off in the maritime area, we're always able to securely transmit data back and forth. (upbeat music) - So I'll be honest, I was a little bit surprised when I first met you, you being a British bloke and all, not what I expected coming out here.

What's your background? - So it's really good. You'll find guys that work for Edge from all over the place. It's the nice thing about here is we're really trying to create like a center of excellence for test and evaluation. So you get guys from all over the world. So I started doing test and evaluation with a British company in the UK working on, you know, UK weapons ranges. And it's kind of just a natural progression from there. We're also getting lots and lots of really talented Emiratis coming through who are, you know, really, really starting to come into the test and evaluation world. So the future's really bright for this place in terms of, you know,

a really good workforce going forward. Okay, Sam, so this is. You're on the north shore of the island right now. So out here you can see the Arabian Gulf. So we effectively use this area as almost like an amphibious area. So this could be multi-use. So you can use this for sort of amphibious forces coming ashore. But more likely what we try and do with this area is to use it for unmanned systems in a amphibious role. So perhaps you're using unmanned or offboard systems to conduct beach reconnaissance, et cetera, or to sort of guide the way for amphibious forces coming ashore. So this area offers a wide area in which to do that different types of terrains we can organize for all of the water space and airspace around here

to be cleared for that type of activity. So it's a really kind of unique training environment. And then we can couple that with the rest of the environment inland as well. So it doesn't have to be the beach, you can come ashore, and then you can move inland to continue to do other different types of training as well. (gentle music) - So something I wasn't originally aware of is that this island isn't just for the Edge Group, right, you can rent it out and lease it out to other countries and commercial partners to use. How does that work? We are a commercial test range. So we're not just, you know, for military, we service everybody, you know, military, government, commercial, academia. But that's not only just in the UAE,

that's international partners as well. So if you're an international company, you are more than welcome to come and use this range and take advantage of the services and facilities we have. (gentle music) You are now standing in our environmental test facility. So this is a secure separate compound inside XRANGE fenced off. You can see the protective bunkers around here. This whole compound here is completely sacrificial. The reason it's sacrificial is because in these buildings here, we are testing munitions and components of munitions

essentially for suitability for transportation. - So you said this is the climactic temperature chamber, huh? So the ordinance goes inside here and. - Absolutely, absolutely. So each one of these can take various types of munitions or components of ammunition. And we will be able to raise and lower the temperature inside each of these chambers basically in accordance with a specific test procedure, whether that be a, you know, MIL standard, NATO standard, other international standards, et cetera. So this is all sacrificial. So what will happen is there'll be nobody physically anywhere near this during a test.

So in the worst case, if a munition fails a test and does explode, then it's fine. We lose the building, but we don't lose anybody. - When you guys originally decided, hey, we're gonna build a private island to test military defense equipment, like what was that conversation like? - Ah, so I think the. So the UAE has a very developed defense and aerospace industry, and so there's lots of great companies here producing lots of great things.

Now, the need kind of arose from it was getting really expensive to send test items, you know, like this to other places around the world. And, you know, why not have that capability as a sovereign capability here in the UAE, you know, grows the workforce, helps UAE exports of products and systems. So it's a win-win. - Now, I'll be honest, I've done a lot of tours of some really secure facilities. I think this might be the coolest vehicle I've ever ridden in for the. So thanks for the hookup. - I'm glad, I'm glad. - Now this place is pretty neat.

- So it is. So this is our drone training village or FPV village if you wanna call it that. So this place was built for a very specific purpose, which was training drone operators in a kind of recreated urban environment. But not only the humans who are operating the UAVs, but we've also done work with companies who are training AI algorithms, which operate the UAV. This village here is about 400 meters long. It's made up about 400 shipping containers, all at irregular intervals. There are gaps which are, you know, 10 meters wide, 2 meters wide, 30 centimeters wide.

- Yeah, I'm used to like, you know, CQB close quarters battles with humans coming in. - Absolutely. - But that's the future of everything. It seems like. - Absolutely. - You guys are using this for drones. That's really cool. - Absolutely. - It makes sense. - And there'll be upgrades to this in future, you know, to keep up the pace of, you know, how UAVs are used on modern operations. So, you know, UAV clearing trenches, various different types of other buildings, et cetera. So, yeah, this place will evolve as we go.

- Now after spending the day exploring XRANGE, it's clear that this place was built for one main purpose, to push the limits of defense technology. But all the runways, facilities, and testing zones really don't mean much without the tech that fills them. And so to really understand what the Edge Group is all about, we have the opportunity to head out and see some of their products firsthand and more importantly, in action. - So, Sam, now you've seen a little bit of the island, you've seen what we offer to our clients and our customers. We're now gonna come onto the product demonstration part of your tour. So here at Edge, we're all about developing

the next generation of unmanned and autonomous systems. But to start with, we're gonna show you the THeMIS unmanned ground vehicle. (upbeat music) - Okay. So the best part now then, Sam, is we're gonna put this on you. It's the radios, it's the tough book, and then it's the joystick for you to take control of the UGV. - All right. Sweet. Just go on like a backpack - This goes on like a backpack. Exactly that. - Okay. It's kind of like a PlayStation controller.

- Yeah. So you have the joystick in front of you. First of all, you have these switches here, these kill switches. If you let go of those, the platform will stop immediately. - Okay. - So it's the safety function, nice and easy. So if in doubt, let go of those, it stops. And then on your left thumb, it's purely forwards and backwards. Remembering forwards is towards your expensive camera kit. - Yes. - Backwards is out that way. So that's what I would suggest.

- Okay. - It's in slow mode for now. Just for you to get into that. - You like to start out slow. That's fine. - 10 KPH is the maximum speed on the current setting. - Okay. Got it. - So good luck. - Let's do it. Glasses going on. We're entering driving mode. (upbeat music) - So THeMIS is an unmanned ground vehicle, first and foremost. And what you see is a base platform. So it can be integrated to a number of payloads to fulfill a number of roles. - All right, here we go. - Okay, cool. - Launching - On you. (THeMIS engine revving) - [Jamie] Try bit of a right joystick. There you go.

- Oh, nice tight turn there. - Yeah. So if you do it, like, incrementally, you'll feel it, then do a nice sweeping turn, otherwise it can be a little bit jumpy. - [Sam] All right, let's do a little 360 here. There we go. Okay. - So the THeMIS can come in up to three configurations. It has the cargo, which is the most base level platform. It can also perform a strike function. So be fitted with a remote weapon station and a weapon of variety of calibers. And it can also fulfill a ISR or intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance role

providing observe with both cameras, radars, and any other sensors that are fitted. So it has an autonomous function which is very much kind of cursor on map to tell it where you want it to go and draw its roots. And it also has a variety of sensors for obstacle avoidance and root selection on its own as well. Just slowly pull the joystick. There you go. So you can see it's quite easy to turn in a more gradual. Yeah. So don't be afraid to push it all the way forward and then just gently apply the side pressure on the right hand joystick, and you'll just see it arc more than a.

- What is the range on something like this? - So it's kind of specific to the radios. on this configuration, easy up to a kilometer, maybe a kilometer and a half, depending on the terrain and what else is going on. - So let's say this thing needed to go up a hill or cross a stream, like what are the limits on that? - So it is payload dependent. It's very much tends to be done by driver judgment. However, there is a mode we can put it in if perhaps it's slightly more challenging, which is called tank mode.

- Tank mode. - And this enables you to control each track independently and helps you, therefore, kind of judge the torque you put through the platform to get it over a particular obstacle. Particularly useful when going through a kind of ravine or a slight water crossing. - And is this the fastest it can go or. - No. So you're actually in the slow mode now, which is 10 KPH maximum. - Yeah. - And then we can double that once you're happy. - Yeah.

- We'll also try that tank mode I talked about as well. - Yeah, I say we bump up the speed. Let's do it. - Let's do that. - Oh, that is way faster. - Yeah. - [Sam] So this is max speed right here. - [Jamie] This is it. This is 20 KPH, exactly that, so. - 20 kilometers per hour. All right. - On the base platform, perhaps it doesn't look as exciting, but if you imagine a weapon station on there, then it's pretty aggressive and very effective.

- Yeah. I'll bring it right behind us. - Awesome. - Here we go. - Like a pro. - Well, I'll tell you what, this thing is pretty neat. - Awesome. - And it's cool to see it's already being used. There's a lot of capabilities. Thanks for letting me hang out in control. No, you are very welcome. - (indistinct) absolute pleasure. - Nice to meet you. - [Sam] After controlling THeMIS and seeing it maneuver, I have to admit that the capability and performance are pretty interesting. But what first caught my eye

when I was researching the Edge Group wasn't actually their vehicles, it was their aircraft. (upbeat music) This is Reach-S, the workhorse of the Edge Group. Built for long endurance flights and substantial payload capacity, engineered with the versatility to take on just about any mission you throw at it. - This is Reach-S. It has a large fuselage where it can carry different types of sensors, different communication packages, different weapons, long range, long endurance, but a very stable aircraft.

Everything is dual redundancy. There's two aileron servers, two elevators, two rudders, everything, where practically possible has dual redundancy. - Yeah, this is a really unique design. What actually does this allow you guys to do? - So this is a combination of a normal type of elevator and rudder fun type thing. It's a combination of the two. We call it a inverted V. So it's basically a V-tail inverted. And this is a rudder for yaw and elevator for pitch.

It does both. - And this is a cool view here, right? Just single engine. - Yeah. Single engine, variable pitch propeller makes it nice and efficient to take off in short distance, heavily loaded, good performance all round and propellers taking care of that. - And what's the capabilities in terms of max speed and range? Are you able to endurance flying? - So we can fly for 12 hours no problem. And of course that's a trade off. If you want more fuel you can fly. More fuel, you can fly longer. There's a lot of options. - It's on a payload too, I imagine. - And this airframe gives you a lot of options to do various, various things.

(upbeat music) - Engine to warm up. Oil pressure at 3.5. (upbeat music) 2.9. Okay, that's great. (drone engine rumbling) (upbeat music) (drone engine roaring) - How responsive are the controls on this platform for you? - Yeah, it's very responsive. 'Cause in this mode we flying pure manual control.

- Yeah. - In the production systems, they fly fully on automatic. For development and autopilot tuning, we use this pure radio control mode. (wind whooshing) - Lining up for the slow speed pass here. - Yeah. - All right. - This will be basically like a missed approach landing. - Sure. (gentle upbeat music) (drone engine roaring)

- Well, we saw the slow speed pass. So how about we do like a high speed pass. - Okay. - That'd be pretty cool. And what speed are we gonna be hitting here? - [Neil] So we'll do, I'm not allowed to exceed 50 meters a second. (upbeat music) (drone engine roaring) - So. (upbeat music) - So Neil mentioned that he's flying it manually right now because that's how they do their testing out here. But the whole point of this drone for the reach-S is that it can be controlled automatically. And it's monitored inside

at the ground control station right over there. So I'm gonna head and go check it out right now. (upbeat music) All right. So we are now inside the ground control station here, like I just mentioned. And we've got Hashim here. - Yes. - So you're actually in control of the drone, well, kind of, right, it's on auto mode right now, but you're monitoring everything. - Yes. Now, it's on auto mode. So it's following the flight plan that was uploaded before the flight, certain altitude, certain mission, certain shape of flight, and certain mission limits.

- So everything's flying, like autonomously right now? - Yes. - It's doing its own thing. - Exactly. - Yeah. - It's autopilot on means that the flight control is active and it's flying without autopilot. Now, it's an operator on the loop where operator visualizes and see how the aircraft is doing. But it's doing all the mission by itself. - And this is, like, the real world application of Reach-S, right? Like I know we're flying it manually for testing now, but it's meant to be autonomous, right?

- Exactly. It takes off on its own. It goes to the mission on its own. It does ISR, does whatever it needs to be done, then it comes back, it's all uploaded in the flight plan before the aircraft is on the runway. - Now, moving over to this section, we've got an entirely new console here. So, AJ, can you tell me a little bit about what you're doing? - Right. This is a locally developed GCS station. At the moment, this is monitoring the flight, capturing huge amount of data for the test flights. And I'm monitoring engine control data, communication stability,

as well as tracker and various other types of data. - So you've got the joysticks here, but you're not actually controlling the drone, right? You're just monitoring it. And this is actually like the cameras on the drone, right, the ISR features. - Correct. - But no controls to actually move it around. - No, though it's possible. With the current configuration, it's not at the moment what we're doing. - Yeah, it's pretty cool. And I think we're about to head back outside to watch this thing land. So let's do it.

(upbeat music) - So aircraft's in auto mode now. That's just loitering. When I'm happy with the position, which will be here close to my eight o'clock, nine o'clock position, I'll be switching control away from the autopilot back to me, which will be full manual control. And then I'll set up for the landing to touch it up. - All right. You're gonna grease it on, right? Nice. - We try and grease. Kiss the planet is the objective. - Let's do it. - Okay. (drone engine roaring) Box checks. Brake are off. And modes are correct. Throttles at idle.

I'm happy with my box. And as soon as I'm in position I'll take it. Runway's clear? - Clear. - Okay. Hashim, you ready? (upbeat music) (wind whooshing) Touched on. Brakes on. - Well done, Neil. - Thank you. - There we go. - Next breaks. Breaks off. - After getting a closer look at Reach-S, you can start to see the story that Edge is trying to tell. A full lineup of unmanned aircraft designed to fill almost every gap on the modern battlefield. But there's one last piece of that lineup

that I've had my eyes on all day. And I can't think of a better way to close out this video than what we've got coming next. So, Harry, it's been a pretty incredible day, but I have one last request. We've got about an hour until I know you have to kick me off this island, but what are the chances I can get the keys to this beast from you and whip it around the sand dunes before we head out? - You think you can handle it? - I don't know, but maybe. - Okay, don't tell anybody. Let's go. (upbeat music) (car engine rumbling) - So you sighed earlier, but this is the Ajban, the latest light tactical patrol vehicle from the Edge Group.

And this thing is an absolute beast. Its ballistics and blast resistant, has a diesel water cooled turbocharged engine, and if needed can be equipped with a roof-mounted remote weapon system. But today, I've got the keys, so I say, we go see what this thing is really made of. (upbeat music) Let's do this. (car engine rumbling) Woo! Baby. (car engine rumbling) Yeah, it feels like driving a tank, honestly. (car engine rumbling) Pretty maneuverable. Tight turn. Here we go. Woo! (car engine rumbling) And full speed ahead. Let's go.

(upbeat music) - Turbo charged baby. You feel it. Woo! (upbeat music) (car engine rumbling) So with that, I think our day is officially complete here on the XRANGE, which is good because the jet lag is starting to kick in. If you wanna learn more about the Edge Group and the products and technology behind the company, I'll leave a link down in the description below. And for us, I think we've got a little bit of gas left. I'll catch you all next time. (upbeat music)