| DSEi is an exhibition for land, sea and air applications of defence and security products and technologies |
This year's Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEi) exhibition, which played host to the world's largest display of land, sea and air applications of defence and security products and technologies, has confirmed its attendance figure this year as 29,112, an increase of 16 percent on the previous edition in 2009. The exhibition featured 1,391 exhibiting companies representing 46 countries and included 30 national pavilions making this the largest DSEi ever.
DSEi 2011 attracted official overseas delegations from 55 nations - a 12 percent increase on the number of countries who sent delegations in 2009. Official delegations attended from countries including Australia, Brazil, Estonia, Republic of Korea, Romania and Turkey. In addition, there were record numbers of DSEi VIP guests from the UK and around the world - an increase of 30 percent overall in terms of senior military and government visitors.
The UK Secretary of State for Defence, the Right Honourable Dr Liam Fox MP, delivered a keynote address on the opening day and there were unprecedented levels of attendance from UK Government Ministers, including the Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Lord Green, the Minister for International Security Strategy, Gerald Howarth MP and the Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology, Peter Luff MP. James Brokenshire MP, Minister for Crime and Security at the Home Office, also paid a special visit to the event.
Other visiting dignitaries included: the UK MOD's Chief of Defence Materiel, Bernard Gray; First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope; Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Peter Wall; Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton; Assistant Chief of the UK Defence Staff (Health) and Chief Naval Medical Officer, Surgeon Rear Admiral Lionel Jarvis.
In addition to the most senior official overseas military and government representatives, attending dignitaries from overseas included: Chief of Staff Special Operations, General Frédéric Beth (France); Deputy Commander Allied Maritime Component Command, Vice Admiral Hans-Jochen Witthauer (Germany); Deputy Chief of Staff for Capability Development (SACT), Vice Admiral Carol Pottenger (United States); and Director General Naval Armaments, Vice Admiral Ernesto Nencioni (Italy). Reflecting the increased focus on security during this DSEi, visitors such as Commanding General Counter Terrorist Operation Centre, Lieutenant General Prapajit Chaowarit (Thailand) and the Director General Indian Coast Guard, Vice Admiral AK Chopra (India) also attended the exhibition.
For the first time this year, DSEi staged a number of high level briefings, which were held away from the show floor to provide an in-depth understanding of a wide variety of topics, including trauma care, defence offsets and cyber security.
Popular features included the UK Capability Showcase, staged for the first time by UKTI Defence & Security Organisation, the Robotics & Unmanned Systems Showcase, which included a twice-daily scenario demonstration and the Waterborne Demonstrations which, for the first time, featured a hovercraft. The Ships Visits Bureau was also kept busy organising hundreds of tours on-board the Royal Navy's HMS DAUNTLESS and HMS TYNE, the Norwegian Navy's HNoMS STORM, the Federal German Navy's FGS BRAUNSCHWEIG and the Dutch survey ship HNLMS SNELLIUS.
DSEi Exhibition Director Duncan Reid said, "First and foremost I'd like to thank all our exhibitors - they helped to make the show a major success. We invested significantly in this year's event. We introduced new features such as the Robotics & Unmanned Systems Showcase, a security themed stream in our seminar theatres, enhanced Waterborne Demonstrations, a static Vehicle Display Area and the show floor seminars. All in all, there has been an unprecedented amount of live action for visitors to see and a real diversity of learning opportunities - the high levels of visitor numbers reflect the success of this approach. Now our task is to build on this platform and we are already planning for DSEi 2013, which will take place from 10 to 13 September, 2013 at ExCeL."