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South Asia's biggest airshow ends in India
2009-02-15
BANGALORE, India (AFP) - South Asia's biggest airshow ended here Sunday with armament and aviation firms from 25 countries hoping to win multi-billion dollar contracts from India's weapons-hungry military. "Some 200,000 visitors, including 50,000 delegates, attended the five-day event," airshow spokesman Gurpal Singh said as thousands of visitors ignoring security burst into the grounds on Sunday. Soldiers guarding the venue were harried as people broke through security cordons to look at flying displays by some of the world's most advanced combat aircraft. "Thousands turned up in large numbers leading to exhibitors' pavilions getting choked with people," Indian defence ministry official M.P. Singh added. Invited visitors appeared angry. "What started as a grand event has ended as a cattle show, with crowds swarming pavilions, food courts and even the rest rooms," an IBM software engineer said. Just an hour before the show ended, two tyres of an F-16 burst while the fighter jet was landing after a display. No one was hurt but the mishap sparked safety concerns and emergency teams hurriedly towed away the aircraft. US-based aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, which hopes to sell 126 such jets to India, said the accident did not disrupt other display flights including aerobatics by a formation of Indian jets. The show also saw the first export of Indian-made helicopters to Ecuador and the signing of pacts involving India's state-run military firms and overseas companies such as US-based Boeing and Russian armament companies. "Besides, a lot of queries we received could translate into business deals," said a top official from India's Defence Research and Development Organisation, which has several ongoing joint ventures with overseas companies. Nearly 600 armament and aerospace firms -- half of them from overseas -- took part in this year's Aero India event where rival Pakistan was not invited. Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours have soared in the wake of last November's attacks in Mumbai, which India blames on Pakistan-based Islamist militants. Despite the deepening global slowdown, India's million-plus military says it cannot cut defence spending and plans to hand out contracts worth 30 billion dollars in the next three to four years. The defence budget accounts for 2.5 percent of GDP and India has imported military hardware worth 28 billion dollars since 2000. Leading the pack of countries which sent 303 international firms to the event were Germany and France with 31 firms each. Twenty-six British, 24 Russian and 22 US firms were also present, along with 289 Indian defence companies. Among the prime pickings is a 12-billion-dollar deal for 126 fighter jets. Six major aeronautical firms competing for the contract participated in the air show. Besides the 126 jets, transport aircraft and AWACS, India plans to buy 700 helicopters worth 3.5 billion dollars, artillery, warships and other hardware for billions of dollars. Israel, which replaced France in 2007 as India's second-largest arms supplier after Russia, sent its top 10 defence firms. Government sources told AFP in New Delhi that Israel was likely to overtake Russia and become India's prime arms supplier with unspecified deals it reportedly bagged in the current financial year ending March 31.
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