Thiruvidanthai: India is holding a mega defence exhibition – the DefExpo – which started here today with the participation of big world players of global as well as domestic level firms manufacturing military equipment. They want to bag some orders from the billions of dollars of contracts to be made as part of the country’s military modernization programme.

The NDA government is trying to potray the 10^th edition of the event as first such serious attempts to transform India from being the largest importer of military equipments to a hub of military manufacturing.

The experditure is going to be close to USD 300 Billion from the Indian side in the coming next five years in procuring defence equipment and almost every major globally renowned firm is trying to get a slice from the orders.

The ‘DefExpo’ is a four daylong event being held on the outskirts of Chennai and very close to the temple town of Mahabalipuram. As it begins today, it will be formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow.

As per the data received from the Defence Ministry, more than 670 defence firms are taking part in the event. They all include 154 foreign manufacturers which are participating in the exhibition of weapons and military hardware.

More than 47 countries which includes the US, UK, Russia, Afghanistan, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Madagascar, Myanmar, Nepal, Portugal, Seychelles and Vietnam will participate in the four day event.

The exhibitions’ theme is ‘India: The Emerging Defence Manufacturing Hub.’

The international companies which are taking part in the expo include Lockheed Martin, Boeing (US), Saab (Sweden), Airbus, Rafael (France), Rosonboron Exports, United Shipbuilding (Russia), BAE Systems (UK), Sibat (Israel), Wartsila (Finland) and Rhode and Schwarz (Germany).

The equipments developed in India itself for the land, air and naval systems are also being showcased here.

The weapons and platforms put on display and are from India, include the Tejas fighter jets, advanced towed artillery gun systems (ATAGS) designed by the DRDO Arjun Mark 2 tank and Dhanush artillery guns.

The Indian company which manufactures various military related equipment, DRDO, exhibits include the Nirbhay missile system with launcher, autonomous unmanned ground vehicle (AUGV), MBT Arjun Mk-I tank, Astra missile, low level transportable radar (LLTR) system, medium power radar (MPR) system and Varunastra — heavy weight anti-submarine electric torpedo.

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