WORLD DEFENSE SHOW 2024 — Hundreds of defense firms from dozens of countries are set to descend on Riyadh next week as the second-ever World Defense Show kicks off, offering a glimpse into what the kingdom sees as “the future of defense.”
“We’re hoping for a much bigger and better show this time around. This time [WDS] will be heavily focused on the future of defense, [as] we’re going to showcase what the defense landscape might look like in 2030 and beyond,” WDS CEO Andrew Pearcey told Breaking Defense in an interview.
The goal of the WDS, according to Pearcey, is to become “the biggest defense show in the world. And to do that [we] need to grow … to be bigger and better than other shows, that’s our vision.”
Saudi Arabia’s next door neighbor, the United Arab Emirates, hosts a number of international defense shows, offering another interesting angle to tangled inter-Gulf rivalry.
“[WDS] presents a unique opportunity for international firms to get access to the Vision 2030 program, how they can get involved in the industry, and there will be lots of partnerships announced during the show between international [companies] and Saudi local companies” Pearcey told Breaking Defense.
Vision 2030 is a sprawling, government-wide push by Riyadh that began in 2016 to modernize the nation and become a “global investment powerhouse.” In the defense trade, that also means luring in foreign investments, making more partnerships with foreign defense firms and, crucially, mandating a significant amount of domestic production for defense articles. Under this vision, Riyadh’s local defense conglomerate, Saudi Arabian Military Industries or SAMI, was founded in 2017.
“What’s important to the Kingdom is to achieve this Vision 2030, 50 percent localization defense production within the Kingdom itself,” Pearcey said.
WDS 2024 has 25 percent more floor space than it did last year, adding a new exhibition hall,150 exhibitors and 75 participant countries, including 23 countries exhibiting for the first time.
Among the countries participating in the show for the first time is Turkey, which will be making a large appearance. Turkey’s participation is unsurprising since Turkish firm Baykar signed a large contract with Saudi Arabia in 2023.
Companies from Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Australia, Denmark, Azerbaijan, Taiwan, Colombia, Croatia, and Ethiopia are also making their first appearance.
US defense firms are expected to display their defense hardware in the same showroom as Russian firms. As for the geopolitical awkwardness that might cause — nothing new to Middle East defense shows — Pearcey said the Saudi government makes the call on who attends the show and right now both Russia and the US are “welcome.”
Russia’s Rosoboronexport said ahead of the show that it’ll be putting on Russia’s “single exhibit” — but one double the size of Moscow’s presence in 2022 and that will feature products from more than 20 Russian firms. The state organization said it plans to display armored vehicles, Orlan unmanned aerial vehicles as well as transport aircraft.
“We see great interest among representatives of the armed forces and law enforcement agencies of Saudi Arabia and other countries of the Middle East in the latest battle-tested Russian defense products,” Rosoboronexport Director General Alexander Mikheev said in a release.
China meanwhile, will be there, including reportedly planning an air show for attendees.
New Features, An Intro Into The Saudi Market
This year, WDS will have several new features including the Future Defense Forum, the Journey to the Future display and the Defense Space Arena.
Journey to the Future will involve an artificial intelligence guide, AIDA (Artificial Intelligence Defense Assistant), to usher visitors around the show pointing out the newly launched defense systems and debuted platforms.
Although live displays are not new to the show, Pearcey told Breaking Defense that this edition the static display area for aircraft and land vehicles will include a larger number of platforms as well as fill flying displays taking place daily in the afternoon.
“A new feature for this show is the defense space arena in Hall 3, we’re showcasing where the future of defense actually lies as well in the final frontier of space. So we want people to understand how that might look and what sort of opportunities are there and we’ve actually got a theater there focusing on the content of the subject of space and so you’ll see a full content program supporting that,” Pearcey said, adding that Saudi Ministry of Defense officials will attend this feature.
Pearcey said that the show will be an opportunity to get international participants involved with the Saudi market through the Meet the KSA Government feature.
“Meet KSA Government is open mainly for international exhibitors to come in and really understand how they can get into the Saudi market. So they will meet the General Authority of Military Industries [GAMI] who will do a presentation and explain how the international [firms] can get involved in the Saudi market,” he told Breaking Defense.
About that defense industry rivalry with the UAE and it’s flagship defense show IDEX, Pearcey said, “I see us all supporting the region and promoting the defense industry. With just the nature of Saudi anyway, I think we do provide some unique things that are different from IDEX. I think [that] will mean that we can exist alongside each other.