ROME — The United Arab Emirates has handed a five-year, €500 million ($524 million) contract to a joint venture between local group Edge and Italy’s Fincantieri to carry out maintenance and upgrades for its naval fleet.

The joint venture, known as Maestral, which was created in May 2024, will oversee “comprehensive maintenance management of the UAE Navy to meet key operational and logistic needs” and support the UAE Navy’s “transformation journey to new levels of performance,” Fincantieri said in a statement.

The deal reflects the move by Italian firms, including Fincantieri and Leonardo, to enter into long-term partnerships with Gulf firms to transfer skills and technologies.

When it was launched, Fincantieri said the joint venture would be be 51% owned by EDGE but run by Fincantieri managers, and would aim to build and sell naval vessels to non-NATO countries, taking advantage of the UAE’s relations with other states and the export credit financing it offers.

State controlled Fincantieri is Italy’s main naval contractor and is also building FREMM frigates for the US Navy at its U.S.-controlled yard.

Founded in 2019, EDGE is a advanced technology group which groups 25 UAE firms and employs 8,000.

At the time it was created, the firms said the joint venture would enhance’s Edge’s ship design skills, while the joint venture would also develop mid-size submarines.

The new contract to maintain the UAE fleet was awarded by Tawazun Council, a government entity that works closely with the UAE Ministry of Defence and security agencies in the United Arab Emirates.

Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.