In the backdrop of a major financial crisis in Eurozone, the five-day Eurosatory, a leading land, airland defence and security event, has had its share of hiccups. Though well attended and a skew of new launches and announcements, the mood at Eurosatory reflected a cautious approach.

Understandbly so, with several European nations having slashed their defence budgets, the mood, if not pessimistic is ‘wait and watch’. The British think-tank, International Institute for Strategic Studies, has reported that defence spend by European NATO states dropped by an average of 7.4 per cent per country in real terms between 2008 and 2010, with double-digit drops in France, Italy and Spain. A worrisome factor, indeed.

However, many of the 1,433 firms which had their wares on display pinned their hopes on delegations from the emerging economies. There were 155 delegations from 84 countries with nearly 55,000 visitors, 54 per cent being international.

Strong Indian presence

The Indian delegation was led by the Minister of State for Defence, Dr M.M. Pallam Raju who in an exclusive brief interaction with SP Guide Publications said: “Eurosatory is an important event for India as we get to see here the latest offerings from OEMs from all over the world. As we have embarked upon modernisation of the armed forces, attending such events is always beneficial. The government is committed to providing the best equipment to the Indian soldier.”

Indian presence at Eurosatory was strong with both public and private sector showcasing various capabilities. OEMs reportedly held several discussions with the Indian delegation and exhibitors in the hope of securing partnerships which in the medium and long term would be winners.

Indeed, the best and the latest weaponry, military equipment and solutions, communication networks, warfighter essentials were showcased during the week-long fair. Many of the OEMs proudly presented some of the products and solutions as having gone through severe tests in Afghanistan, indicating they were ‘combat proven’

The refrain at Eurosatory, no doubt, was that OEMs had to continue looking east to keep their businesses going. The Asian pie, with India leading, was hard to ignore for any OEM. The need to woo the Asian buyer was evident. The worldwide arms market is said to be worth over $1 trillion a year.

This year, Eurosatory is said to have consolidated its position in security (police, civil security, fire service) by gathering companies which displayed dedicated or dual offering. About 40 per cent (560 exhibitors) belonged to this segment. The largest group of exhibitors was from the US (158), followed by the United Kingdom (109) and Israel (59), not to miss out on the Russian, Indian, Chinese, Korean and Indonesians who were almost all over the place.

In 2010, Eurosatory had over 350 new product announcements and this number has been surpassed at this year’s event which had clusters for UAVs-UGVs; simulation; operational medicine; day and night vision; defence and security operational individual equipment; high technology subcontracting; embedded electronics and CBRNe.

New products and innovations

The highpoint of the show, however, were products and solutions which gave that fighting edge in warfare through complete terrain dominance. The Israelis were right up front in this area. Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Elbit Systems, with stalls next to each other, had amazing footfalls, most of them overawed by their offerings in ‘complete terrain dominance’. The use of radars, UAVs, helicopters, missiles, networked communication, command control, etc were accentuated by these two companies to great effect.

The biggies in the defence realm such as BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Raytheon, EADS, Finmeccanica, L-3 Communications, Thales, Oshkosh, ITT, Honeywell, Textron, Rockwell Collins, Safran, HAL, Goodrich and a host of others were armed with their latest offerings.

Not to be outdone were medium and small players. From Amphemol’s rugged USB 3.0 keys to FN Herstal’s FN Scar assault rifle to Insitu’s NightEagle to Iveco’s VBTP 6X6 armoured, amphibious vehicles, Eurosatory had an array of products and solutions that had potential of shock and awe of the firepower that land systems could generate.

Eurosatory 2012 was packed with amazing warfare capabilities to deal with any kind of threat. While the OEMs seem to have answers to such asymmetric and regular warfare, they however seem clueless on dealing with the recessionary trends, except looking for solutions eastward. Will the east bail the OEMs out is a question that has many strings, including technology transfer. The oriental story is slowly but surely unfolding.

More to follow in next issue of SP’s M.A.I., Issue 13, July 1-15, 2012