Arms companies at DSEi
DSEi is expecting to host arms companies from 40 countries, selling small arms, missiles, planes, tanks, military electronics and warships, as well as surveillance and riot control equipment.
As of 7 September there were 1,262 exhibitors registered for this year's arms fair (the full list is available on the DSEi website ). The list features all of the world's top ten arms companies. A few of the companies attending are briefly profiled below:
BAE Systems
BAE is the world's second largest arms producer. It makes fighter aircraft, warships, tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery systems, missiles, munitions and much more.
It is an international company with six "home markets": the US (the largest), the UK, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, and South Africa. BAE is unlikely to prioritise UK interests: as its Annual Report states, its strategy is "to deliver sustainable growth in shareholder value".
Global sales
BAE's arms are sold indiscriminately around the world, with military customers in over 100 countries. Its recent focus has been on increasing sales to the US, specifically targeting equipment for the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and supplying Eurofighters to the Saudi Arabia regime.
Corruption investigations
BAE is under investigation in numerous countries. In December 2006, the UK's Serious Fraud Office dropped its corruption investigation into BAE's Saudi arms deals following pressure from BAE and the Saudi regime.
However, investigations into the Saudi deals continue in both the US and Switzerland. In addition, the SFO and agencies in other countries continue to investigate many other BAE deals, including sales to the Czech Republic, South Africa and Tanzania.
Heckler & Koch
Heckler & Koch is one of the world's largest small arms proliferators. It produces pistols, rifles, machine guns, sub-machine guns and grenade launchers, and its weapons are in use in 90 countries. Over seven million G3 rifles alone have been produced.
The company has an office in Nottingham in the UK, with responsibility for "international customer sales" outside NATO.
Global sales
Much of the manufacturing of Heckler & Koch weapons is carried out under licensed production agreements, either for the armed forces of the producing country or for export. Such agreements have been made with a number of EU countries, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey, Burma and Iran.
Recently, Heckler & Koch weapons have been used by the Janjaweed in Sudan, and by corporate mercenaries Blackwater, in Iraq.
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is the world's largest arms producer and is particularly dominant in terms of fighter aircraft. It is also the prime contractor for long-range Trident nuclear missiles deployed on US Ohio and UK Vanguard submarines.
Global sales
Lockheed produces the ubiquitous F-16 Fighting Falcon, with customers including: Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Jordan and UAE in the Middle East; Indonesia, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand in Asia; and Greece and Turkey in NATO. Lockheed Martin is now manufacturing the F-16's successor, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, along with Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems.
Israel possesses the largest fleet of F-16s outside the the US. These aircraft, as as well as Lockheed's Hellfire missiles, are at the forefront of Israeli assaults on the Occupied Territories and its neighbours.
Pakistan Ordnance Factories
POF is a group of fourteen factories that produce automatic rifles, machine guns, mortar and artillery ammunition, aircraft and anti-aircraft ammunition, tank and anti-tank ammunition, bombs, grenades and landmines.
Global sales
It has a strong export focus, with around 40 countries on its export list. There are very, very few countries it will not sell to.
Rafael
Rafael is a major state-owned Israeli arms company which develops missiles, electronic warfare systems, radar and communications systems, often working in collaboration with other international companies. Its weapons include the Derby and Python air-to-air missiles, the Popeye air-to-surface missile. the Spike anti-tank missile and the Barak shipborne surface-to-air missile.
GlobalSecurity.org has stated that "The Rafael operation in Haifa is reportedly the location of a nuclear weapons design laboratory (Division 20), a missile design development laboratory (Division 48) and a weapons assembly plant."
Rafael has announced that it will display a range of arms at DSEi including its Iron Dome rocket defence system, helicopter weapons and avionics, Spike-ER multi-purpose missiles, and its Toplite surveillance, observation and targeting system.
The company has recently become notorious for appalling sales videos
Raytheon
Raytheon is most famous for missiles – including the Stinger family of surface-to-air missiles and the Tomahawk cruise missile. Both the Tomahawk cruise missile and the AGM-154A Joint Standoff Weapon can be equipped to deploy cluster submunitions.
Global sales
Raytheon exports billions of dollars worth of military equipment each year with a client list that includes Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea.
The Raytheon website boasts both the widespread sale and use of its missiles: "the AGM-65 Maverick is a precision-attack missile for more than 33 countries' air, naval and marine forces... More than 69,000 missiles have been produced to date, and more than 6,000 have been used in combat, with a 93 percent kill rate."
Email this page to a friend
RSS feed
Give us feedback on this page