A fiery name

Calidus is Latin for fiery or spirited, and the company that took the name in Abu Dhabi in 2015 set out to give the United Arab Emirates something it had never had: an aircraft industry of its own, alongside armoured land vehicles. It began with a light attack aeroplane, and with a shortcut. Rather than start from nothing, Calidus turned to Novaer, a small firm in São José dos Campos, Brazil.

Designed in Brazil, built in the Emirates

Novaer’s chief designer was Joseph Kovács, the engineer behind the Embraer Tucano. His B-250 was built entirely of carbon fibre, lighter than its metal rivals, with a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-68 turboprop, two Martin-Baker ejection seats and seven hardpoints. The programme started in 2015 and the prototype flew in July 2017, 25 months later. It was unveiled at the Dubai Airshow that November.

Bigger ambitions

At the 2019 Dubai Airshow the UAE ordered 24 B-250s for AED 2.273 billion, about $620 million, the country’s first purchase of a domestically produced military aircraft. Calidus followed in 2021 with a mock-up of the B-350, a much larger two-seat attacker with a 2,600 shp PW127 turboprop and twelve hardpoints, compared by some to the Douglas Skyraider. In 2024 Intelligence Online reported that Calidus and Indonesia were discussing a drone version of the B-250.

Factories

• Al Ain production site · Al Ain, Abu Dhabi — Planned B-250 manufacturing facility

People

• Joseph Kovács · chief designer, B-250 — Designer of the Embraer Tucano, working for Novaer