pmcimagazine.com
NEWS:
DEFENCE AND SECURITY EQUIPMENT
INTERNATIONAL (DSEI)
In September 2017, PMCI travelled to the ExCeL centre in London to attend the Defence and Security
Equipment International (DSEI) Show. Whilst contentious in some circles this is an event that shows
the future for all things military and security oriented, and what a future it looks to be!
I
f you pick up any decent newspaper or visit any sensible
online news feed these days you are undoubtedly going
to find a story that relates to tightened defence spending,
if not outright cuts in funding. With procurement budgets
being sliced on an almost global level it becomes
increasingly important that new and innovative ways
are found to counter the prevailing threats that we find
ahead of us, and the DSEI show aims to showcase the
very best of them.
From bullets to bandages, and from fighter jets to warships DSEI
brings to the international procurement community a unique
format featuring 1,600 exhibitors with 40 international pavilions
that attracts over 35,000 visitors including international
delegations from existing and both traditional and developing
defence and security markets. The complexity of both national
and international security grows each and every year, and
DSEI aims to provide a “one stop shop” for inter-operability by
melding the areas of maritime, land, air and even cyber in one
place at one time.
It’s a bold show that has developed and evolved from
the traditional “Exhibition” format; between 1976 and 1991,
the British Army Equipment Exhibition and the Royal Navy
Equipment Exhibition were held on alternate years in Aldershot
and Portsmouth respectively. Overseas delegations attended by
invitation only.
4
In 1993 the two exhibitions were combined and held every
other year until the British government decided to privatise
the exhibition. Exhibitions company Spearhead launched the
first DSEI, then known as Defence and Systems Equipment
International, in 1999 at Chertsey in Surrey.