Seoul to hold biennial air defense exhibition

South Korea will hold an international air defense exhibition this month to boost technological exchanges with foreign firms and defense exports.

Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition 2011 will be held from Oct. 18-23 at Seoul Airport in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, featuring the world’s premier aerospace and defense technologies.

Some 300 firms from 30 countries are expected to join the biennial event, which has grown into the largest defense exhibition in the Asia Pacific region since its inception in 1996.

Organizers expect some 250,000 people at the exhibition. Nearly 90 high-level defense industry and military officials from some 50 countries will join the event. Among them are defense chiefs of Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Peru.

Hosted by Korea Aerospace Industries Association, Korea Defense Industry Association and Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, the air show will unveil 95 major pieces of military and commercial equipment.

Among the foreign firms to join the ADEX are Lockheed Martin, Boeing, European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, Northrop Grumman and Gulfstream.

Lockheed Martin will present a mock-up of the F-35 stealth fighter jet while Boeing is to exhibit the B-787 Dreamliner. Northrop Grumman will bring a mock-up of the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle.

Korea’s Air Force will exhibit a variety of aircraft such as the F-15K, KF-16, F-4E, KT-1, T-50 and other planes that it possesses. The Navy will display its P-3C anti-submarine patrol aircraft while the Army will show its CH-47 heavy-lift helicopter and Cobra attack helicopter.

The U.S. Air Force aircraft to be displayed include a AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, UH-60 Black Hawk medium-lift helicopter, Patriot PAC III missile defense system, A-10 jet aircraft, Airborne Warning and Control System, C-130J transport aircraft and U-2 reconnaissance plane.

Local defense firms such as Hyundai Rotem, Samsung Techwin, Doosan DTS and Samsung Thales will also show off their high-tech military products including K9 self-propelled howitzers, K21 armored vehicles and a warship tracking radar.

There will also be a series of seminars and symposiums on defense technologies and weapons systems. The Korean, U.S. Air Forces and defense firms will also stage acrobatic flights using their F-15Ks, T-50s and other aircraft.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)