Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 11th Defense Expo on Wednesday. The expo will be open to the invitees from 5 to 7 February, while the last 2 days will be opened to the general public on 8 and 9 February. Defense Expo is attended by 172 defence equipment manufacturers from 70 countries and 857 companies from India.
Defence ministers from 40 countries are involved in this biggest defence exhibition in Asia.
At the Expo, Dassau Aviation will introduce the Tricolor Rafale fighter aircraft for the first time.
US company Lockheed Martin will also showcase the F-35 Lightning Second to the world for the first time. America wants to sell this fighter aircraft to India.
The Defense Expo was earlier held in Delhi. All the defence expos in the Modi government took place in the home state of the defence ministers. It happened in Goa when Manohar Parrikar was the defence minister in 2016. Parrikar was also the Chief Minister of Goa.
The Defense Expo took place in Tamil Nadu in 2018, when Nirmala Sitharaman was the Defense Minister.
This year’s Defense Expo is being held in Lucknow. Defense Minister Rajnath Singh is an MP from Lucknow.
Asia’s largest arms fair is held at the Vrindavan ground of the Housing Development Department.
Apart from Pinak Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher and Dhanush Cannon, the Army’s weapons include Integrated Multifunction Site, Small Arms Advanced Holographic Site, Eye Safe Laser, Night Vision Devices, Border Surveillance System, Laser Ordinance Disposal System, Laser Dazzlers, Optical Target Locator and Explosive The detector will be shown.
Meanwhile, fighter jets – Sukhoi 30 MKI, Jaguar fighter plane, Chinook and Cheetah helicopters will also fly from Lucknow Airport and Bakshi Ka Talab Airport.
In this Defense Expo to be held from 5 to 9 February, 19 technical and professional seminars have been arranged.
Confederation of Indian Industry, PHD Chambers of Commerce and Associated Chamber of Commerce of India.
The topics for these seminars will be largely futuristic and will include discussions on artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of things, drones, wired warriors, etc.