Cooperation on Low-Altitude Security in the Middle East and North Africa Heats Up: Chinese Technology Boosts Regional Security Upgrade
In February 2026, the 3rd Saudi World Defense Show concluded successfully in Riyadh. This major defense event, gathering more than 100 countries and over 900 enterprises worldwide, has become an important witness to the warming cooperation in the low-altitude security field in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. China Qingdao Zhongke Defense made a grand appearance with its core low-altitude security technologies and products, and successfully reached cooperation intentions on low-altitude security systems with core Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar. This marks the official in-depth entry of Chinese low-altitude security technologies into the MENA market, injecting new vitality into the security protection of key regional facilities and demonstrating the vigorous vitality and broad prospects of low-altitude security cooperation in the MENA region.
The warming of low-altitude security cooperation in the MENA region is no accident, but an inevitable result of the resonance between the upgrading of regional security needs and the demands of industrial development. In recent years, with the rapid popularization of drone technology, the hidden dangers of low-cost, miniaturized drones flying without permission have become increasingly prominent, posing severe challenges to regional security. The region is home to major global energy bases, with long and complex border lines, as well as multiple international hub airports. These core scenarios have an extremely urgent demand for low-altitude security — oil depots and refineries in energy bases need to prevent safety accidents caused by drone attacks, border areas need to rely on low-altitude security to achieve all-weather control to curb illegal border crossings, and airports need to resist drone interference to ensure the normal operation of flights. The previous deployment of the U.S. military's EAGLS anti-drone system in the Middle East also confirms the urgency of regional low-altitude threats from the side. However, the MENA countries themselves have insufficient reserves of security technologies and are in urgent need of introducing advanced, efficient and cost-effective low-altitude security solutions, laying a solid foundation for the warming cooperation.
As a highlight of China at this Saudi World Defense Show, the exhibition achievements of Qingdao Zhongke Defense have become the core link to promote the implementation of cooperation. Centering on the theme of "Military-Grade Core Technology for Low-Altitude Security", the enterprise comprehensively displayed its independently developed full-chain low-altitude security solutions, which mainly cover three core sectors: drone detection, countermeasure, and integrated command platform, accurately meeting the security protection needs of the MENA region. Among them, the drone detection system integrates radar monitoring, radio detection and photoelectric identification technologies, achieving the "three-no" advantages of passive detection, full-coverage without dead ends, and unattended operation, which can accurately lock the position, speed and trajectory of more than 95% of various types of drones; the countermeasure system includes portable countermeasure guns, omnidirectional jamming equipment and laser countermeasure systems, which can effectively block drone remote control and navigation signals, accurately track and strike within 300 meters, and the cost of a single interception is much lower than that of traditional missiles; the integrated command platform realizes the full-process linkage of detection, identification and countermeasure, which can complete the whole process of discovering, identifying and guiding the landing of "illegally flying" drones within 10 seconds, providing intelligent management and control support for multi-scenario security.
The cooperation intentions reached between Qingdao Zhongke Defense and countries such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar this time focus on three core scenarios: energy bases, borders and airports. This is not only a recognition of China's low-altitude security technology strength, but also an important symbol of the in-depth development of low-altitude security cooperation in the MENA region. As a core hub of the Middle East's defense market, Saudi Arabia is promoting the national defense industry localization strategy under the "Vision 2030" and is in urgent need of advanced technologies to help upgrade its security system; the UAE and Qatar focus on security guarantees in their low-altitude economic layout, and the solutions of Qingdao Zhongke Defense can complement their existing infrastructure to build a solid low-altitude security barrier. According to the cooperation plan, both sides will further deepen collaboration in terms of technology adaptation and localized application in the future, optimize product performance in combination with the high-temperature and sandy regional environment in the Middle East, promote the implementation and application of low-altitude security systems in various core scenarios, and explore diversified cooperation models such as joint R&D and localized production to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.
The achievement of this cooperation has not only laid the foundation for Qingdao Zhongke Defense to explore the Middle East market, but also promoted technological exchanges and industrial coordination in the security field between China and the MENA region. At present, the scale of the drone market in the MENA region is continuously expanding, which is expected to reach 5 billion US dollars in 2026, showing huge potential in the low-altitude security market. With their technological accumulation in the field of low-altitude security and advantages in full-chain solutions, Chinese enterprises are becoming important partners in regional cooperation. They not only provide efficient and economical security guarantee solutions for the local area, but also help China's defense science and technology take a solid step forward in "going global".
Looking forward to the future, with the continuous upgrading of low-altitude security needs in the MENA region, the cooperation between regional countries and Chinese enterprises is expected to be further deepened. Chinese enterprises such as Qingdao Zhongke Defense will rely on their technological advantages, optimize products and services in combination with regional actual needs, and promote the localized implementation and iterative upgrading of low-altitude security technologies. At the same time, such cooperation will also promote the MENA region to build a more complete low-altitude security system, improve regional security governance capabilities, help regional peace, stability and sustainable economic development, and provide a reference model for global low-altitude security cooperation.
