+++ IDEX 2011 Blog +++
Abu Dhabi day 2 - Contracts flow
Thuesday 22.02.2001
IDEX is a defence exhibition where the contract announcements are not missing. Every day, at the end of the show, the United Arab Emirates announce the contracts they signed during that day. Yesterday, the total value of the defence contracts awarded by Abu Dhabi topped $1.1 billion and most of them, it’s worth noting, to local firms.
The biggest was the one to Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies who were awarded a contract of $270.6 million to upgrade and arm 23 Black Hawk UH-60M helicopters; Another deal was awarded to Emirates Response Service to provide fire fighting services, equipment and maintenance. More contracts will follow today and so on until the end of the show.
The local companies are developing fast. The two main groups, Mubadala and Tawazun Holding - both State owned through different Government bodies - focused on investing in defence and civil aerospace specialised manufacturing sectors through partnerships and investments. A policy that opened the doors to many collaborations with international companies with the aim to acquire industrial capability for the UAE and to develop the nation's high-tech industries. The results are tangible. Born in the '90s, Tawazun and Mubadala already established numerous joint ventures with overseas defence and civil contractors.
The Eurofighter for these companies could offer a fantastic opportunity in terms of high-tech collaboration activities. The Typhoon platform and its systems are at the beginning of their development life and with an established update plan in place, in agreement with the Eurofighter partner nations, the participation of customer nations industries is an option. An activity that, provided the Typhoon becomes the choice of the UAE Air Defence Force could not only give to the nation the deterrence it needs but also keep local industries involved in high-tech activities for the next three decades.
Eurofighter Typhoon starring IDEX 2011
Monday 21.02.2001
At Abu Dhabi IDEX 2011, the biggest defence exhibition in the Middle East and one of the biggest in the World with around 1000 expositors, the turmoil some Arabic countries are experiencing looks light years distant. The town is totally calm and peaceful with everything as usual, under control, well done and busy. Construction of infrastructures and new, bigger, taller and "contorted" buildings (something that looks like the Abu Dhabi’s like a lot) keep going as usual, also at night, to keep pace with the economic growth that here in Abu Dhabi was not experiencing the crisis that hit Dubai in 2009 and 2010.
The show itself is huge, tri-service, land, naval and air and normally rich of contracts announced by the UAE ministry of Defence to upgrade the nation armed and security forces.
Eurofighter at the show generated a considerable interest which is totally understandable since the Typhoon is the only new generation fighter that has a real experience in service in this harsh climate thanks to the aircraft operational with the Royal Saudi Air Force. Sand, hot and humidity are not really the best friends of aerial machines, but the aircraft, its systems and its engines are performing as usual also in this challenging scenario, without suffering the heavy degradation of performances experienced by other fighter jets, that are older, or of the same generation of the Typhoon.
With Rafale still announcing almost every week that it is still in race for the UAE contract but with nothing happening, the fighter market in the Gulf Region looks promising for fighter producer. IDEX 2011 will be a showcase for an analysis of the trend in this sector.