The Surreal World of Military Trade Shows

Over the last 4 days I was an exhibitor at the Defense Services Asia show in Kuala Lumpur. The show was a great success for us and our local partner XV Asia Technology  with lots of interest from real customers with real money to spend on all of our products.

Met a friend, Mr. C4i. He packed every
electronic gizmo you could imagine into his
stylish uniform.

But I have to admit that the show itself was somewhat surreal. It was like a department store of weapons, armor, vehicles, and all manner of other stuff that goes boom.

I met generals, admirals, deputy ministers, police chiefs and all manner of other senior military officials. After a while it became almost mundane to see a flag officer walk by with an entourage of aides and assistants.

Rather than drone on (yes, there were lots of UAVs there too) about the show, I thought it might be more interesting to see some of the items that were being sold.

I left out some of the less impressive things like trucks, bridges, tires, barbed wire and uniforms. There were plenty of all of these items. And of course there were the major corporations selling jets, satellites, helicopters etc.

The really fun stuff was in the Malaysian exhibit area where you could buy mortars, rocket propelled grenades, tanks, missiles, and any other weapon you could imagine. Take a look.

M4 Assault rifles from Walther.
Blue light special at the end
of the show. Buy two,
get a flash suppressor for free!

Of course there were this years
colorful Howitzer rounds. Light Blue
is perfect for any occasion

Defending the free world from itself is a tough job, but with tools like these, it is just a little easier.

Thank goodness there are not terrorist states attending this show. Oh wait, we did have several people from Iran and Syria stop by the booth to ask about our products. We politely said that unlike some of our competitors, we as an American company honor the embargo against your countries. Sorry. We hope the missile and arms dealers at the show did the same.

The show wrapped up today which ended up being our best day. We gave demonstrations to several high ranking officials who were very impressed and wanted to see more.

I am as exhausted as I was when I arrived. Only a couple of more days of training, sales calls and strategy meetings and I am on my way home.

There were night vision googles
that could accessorize any outfit

My personal favorite was the .40 cal Walther
with a matching silencer. Why wake the kids
when taking out your enemies.

There was a lovely assortment
of air to air missiles.

Be the envy of the neighborhood
with your own tank parked in the
driveway.

If an air to air missile is too small,
why not try a surface to air instead.