Abu Dhabi: IDEX, weapons exhibition
I’m not a rocket launcher, I’m a photographer (I stole the excuse from Latynina!) And in weapons I don’t understand anything. But judging from past posts, a bunch of military experts and weapons experts read me, so don't judge strictly, but tell me in the comments something interesting that I missed.
He visited Abu Dhabi at the International Defense Exhibition, the largest defense exhibition in the Middle East and one of the most prestigious in the world. It is held every two years, starting with the 1993 year. Here, contracts for tens and hundreds of millions of dollars are concluded annually (for example, at the record-breaking 2009 exhibition of the year, deals were concluded for about five billion dollars).
This year there are 47 Russian booths at IDEX (for comparison, there are 202 companies from the UAE, 163 American and 80 British), which show more than 700 latest developments. At such exhibitions, important announcements are usually made or something is shown for the first time - for example, Kalashnikov announced the entry into the market of military drones, and Uralvangozavod presented a special version tank T-90S for the Persian Gulf, whose countries are increasing defense spending due to the danger from ISIS. Emirates Defense Technology Company has introduced a new 8x8-armored Enigma machine, which can be used to install various weapons, including large-caliber artillery.
01. The exhibition is huge. To carefully bypass all the stands is not enough for a whole day. So you have to either quickly run around, or know in advance where to go and what to watch.
02. By the way, the entrance for visitors is free.
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04. At the exhibition a lot of military from different countries, you can safely meet any prince, minister or president. It's nice that no special security measures are being taken on the visit of high-ranking guests, so no one bothers ordinary visitors.
05. Let's start with the Russian exposition. Rosoboronexport on the big screen shows a three-dimensional cartoon about the war. The graphics are quite primitive, it is not entirely clear that potential buyers of our technology should understand from this cartoon. it would be better to ask Bondarchuk to make a beautiful movie!
06. The Russian exposition area is very small, so only 1 tank was physically brought, the rest of the equipment was in layouts. Almaz-Antey showed a mock-up of the Buk-M2E self-propelled anti-aircraft missile system.
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08. MASHINA-M and KAPUSTNIK-B.
09. ATGM "Cornet-E"
10. Some shells.
11. Almost all of our stands were some strange bored people with unwashed heads and suits are not the size. In their eyes it read: "Hurry the exhibition would end and I would go to thump / to shop!"
12. Again, I am not an expert in the sale of arms, perhaps it is these people in strange socks who bring multibillion-dollar contracts to Russia. But for some reason it seems to me that if experienced, friendly managers who had gone to the exhibition not to hang out in their place, had worked better, things would have gone better. When I ask why we make such an ugly weapon, they tell me: “It should not be beautiful, the main thing is to work well!” I won’t argue, maybe strange unthinking people should sell ugly weapons.
13. At some stands, potential buyers are shown photographs of superiors at workplaces or with a telephone receiver in hand. Interestingly, the one who put these photos into the presentation was thinking about? Here comes the crown prince of Abu Dhabi. He thinks where he could buy a dozen missiles or air defense systems, and here at the Russian stand gray-haired men look at him from the screen. Maybe some tricky marketing move?
14. All printed materials are also made as miserable as possible in order to look organically surrounded by strange, bored people and ugly weapons.
15. Here is a good example. People come to the stand of the Tula Arms Plant. 6 man works at the stand. They all sit at tables, read newspapers or chat among themselves. If a booth visitor is very annoying, then they begin to argue about who will go to answer his questions. It usually looks like this: “Le-ee-ee! Look what IT needs there? ”One representative of our delegation shouts to another. Then Lena reluctantly breaks away from reading the magazine and goes something.
16. About the design I will not say anything. On Twitter, I already had the imprudence to assume that the weapon should be beautiful and well made. To which I was told that it owed nothing to anyone. Our weapon has no analogues, the most reliable, unpretentious and inexpensive. And all these glamorous American Ponte gentle and unreliable.
17. Polite person set)
18. I took a gun on one of the stands. It does not have a shutter release button. I insert the store, and after that, in theory, the shutter should automatically return, but it does not return! I have already shoved the store by force several times, it still does not come back. The manager at the stand tried, does not work. “Well, this is an exhibition sample, they beat it up in 2 of the day, so it’s not working well now!” Excellent ... With the same gun (I didn’t remember its name), I try to deactivate the trigger, and there’s some complicated pattern to press two fuses and something else, very uncomfortable. The manager at the stand notices this: “Nothing, you can roll up one fuse with an electrical tape, then it will be convenient!”.
The comments suggested that this is Serdyukov’s self-loading pistol 6P53 “Grach”, an export version of “Gyurza”.
19. Carefully walked around again all our stands, the blue electrical tape was not presented, but in vain.
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21. The weapon baron looks at me with disbelief.
22. By the way, there were several stands of our private arms companies, there is another matter. Good design, friendly men all tell and show, there were queues at these stands. For example, the Moscow company Promtechnology (ORSIS) presented its rifles.
23. Already leaving, I noticed a familiar flag)
I want to say to the Ukrainian readers who now want to pour out bile about “rotting Russia”, you had the same scoop on your stand, the same bored men in suits not in size and women with huge 80 hairstyles.
24. I was pleasantly surprised by the Uralvagonzavod booth, the only one to which the sheikh was not ashamed to invite. First, it was not sovkov assholes. All the staff were in the same beautiful form, were friendly and sweet. I even wanted to buy a tank from them, but they did not sell it.
25. And of course, the UVZ brought a real T-90MS tank, and not a mock-up like some.
26. Tank in a special modification for Arab countries.
27. Here, look at the form. In UVZ even the form of its tankers.
28. I climbed into the tank for the first time in my life. Before that, I thought that the tank should be somehow more spacious, and here, just like in the cockpit of a fighter, you should not turn around.
29. Air conditioning!
30. Get away a little. This is a BMP Enigma, a novelty of the UAE military industrial complex. Yesterday, everyone was joking about the fact that the Emirates can supply Ukraine, they say, except for combat camels here they do nothing. On the BMP is our gun from the BMP-3.
31. But the fifty-millimeter gun from the UVZ, which can be installed on the Enigma. Effective range 3-4 km, 120 shots per minute. Enigma modular, so that the gun on the tower, you can put any.
32. This is anti-aircraft from the Germans.
33. The second Russian stand, for which it is not a shame, is Kalashnikov. Nice guys at the booth, excellent presentation of weapons. The concern showed the factory version of the modernization of AK "hundredth" series. The weapon is now equipped with variable-length butts with adjustable cheek height, a modified receiver cover with two attachment points and a bar for mounting sights, a new pistol grip, a tactical flashlight and a flame arrester of increased efficiency. Previously, it was necessary to bring your own automatic machine, now they are doing it at the factory.
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35. Okay, let's go by competitors. The Germans brought Leopard 2 A7 +. It was first shown in 2010.
36. French Leclerc.
37. TK Boxer. The newest German-Dutch multipurpose BTR.
38. If you know what it is and what is interesting, write in the comments, add to the description.
39. Finnish BTR Patria.
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43. There were no planes, or rather there was one, but not a real model. But everyone was allowed to sit at the helm.
44. I never thought that rockets could be beautiful! Naval Strike Missile is an anti-ship missile from the Norwegian company Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace. Has the ability to apply to ground targets. The rocket is made of composite materials and can provide active interference.
45. Turkish anti-ship missile.
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48. Well, a bunch of various small arms.
49. He must be held in his hands, of course ...
50. Huge booth at the Chinese. He had many clones of various weapons. In place of the Chinese, I would not bring anything at all, but simply write on the stand: “We will copy any equipment for you!”.
51. Handsomely.
52. The stand of the American corporation Lockheed Martin, the world's largest military-industrial enterprise. They, by the way, deliver missile defense for the Emirates. Now the United Arab Emirates is negotiating with Lockheed Martin a contract for the supply of X-NUMX F-30 fighter jets in the most modern version.
53. And this is the Arab drone drones Yabhon United 40 Block 5. The length of the device is 11,3 meter, wingspan ─ 17,53 meter. A drone can fly at speeds up to 200 kilometers per hour and be in the air for up to one hundred hours. The drone can carry weapons weighing up to a ton. The United 40 can use rockets, small caliber bombs, or sonar buoys and sonars.
54. Interestingly, a party of such drones was going to buy Russia a year ago. But something did not work out, as I understood.
55. There were many different UAVs.
56. Most drones are like fish.
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58. As it should be in the Arab exhibition, it was not without golden weapons.
59. The dream of a gypsy drug lord.
60. In the open area were indicative performance of various techniques. Ours was not this year.
61. Ships were represented very poorly.
62. Pakistani ship.
63. American.
64. French ... The form of French sailors, of course, is very unusual.
65. Like this. If you have something to add to these photos, write in the comments.
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