Paris AirShow – Are there restrictions on purchase of Israeli systems ?

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Sources in the Israeli defence industries taking part in the Paris AirShow told i-HLS this week that following first contacts yesterday, two main conclusion arise: The first is that more countries recognize the fact that, on a wide number of areas, Israel has developed systems that are one generation ahead of all the competitors and that often, only state factors prevent purchases. Another conclusion is that some countries recognize that the Israeli Defence Forces authorizes restricted exportation, which often prevents a business purchase as all. “The Defense Forces often authorizes exportation of systems with only restricted abilities”, says an Israeli source at the Paris AirShow. “The constumers know and that creates problems.”

Another conclusion from meetings that took place is that more and more countries – countries who are actually with the highest technological abilities – require a transfer of knowledge as a condition for purchasing Israeli systems. A leading example is India, which requires information on Israeli systems as part of the purchase deal and will probably condition all future purchases in local manufacturing of the Israeli systems purchased.

The Isreali exhibition received a large number of visitors. The number of Chinese visitors armed with cameras, snapping pictures of every system presented, particularly stood out. A lot of attention was also given to the loitering munitions presented by Uvision for the first time in the salon. One of this family – HERO 40 – was revealed on i-HLS, which seems to have attracted a lot of spectators. Another issue that stood out on the first day is the high demand for the enhancement of military systems. The cutting of security budgets and also the U.S. forces leaving Afghanistan – which was accompanied by the return of military vehicles that went on to being enhanced – created a new interest in system betterment. An Israeli source told i-HLS “Many countries realised you can use the same platform and just re-equip it. Israel has a variety of such systems with the majority of it carrying the label: proved in battle.”

As is well-known, the AirShow isn’t for closing deals. The salon is an opportunity for anyone who is related in some way to the security industry to meet everyone else. “It saves long flights across the world. Here I meet in just a few days people who it would have taken me weeks to schedule a meeting with”, said a source of one security industry.