Here Is What Happened During The Biggest Arms Show In Israel

The Avnon Group, who are the organizers behind ISDEF, have published their event’s Post Show Review for 2017. ISDEF is held every two years at the Tel Aviv Convention Center and the latest installment took place from June 6 to 8. The 8th ISDEF was much grander than its predecessors and attracted record numbers of guests and exhibiting companies.

This year saw a distinct spike in visitor numbers, reaching 14,400 compared to just 12,000 in 2015. More than a fifth of 2017’s visitors, totaling 3,242 people, were foreign nationals. 21st Century Asian Arms Race (21AAR) is a media partner for ISDEF 2017.

ISDEF is an arms show with an intense focus on homeland security and counter-terrorism. This explains the broad presence of exhibitors specializing in firearms, protective gear, battlefield communications and electronics, vehicles, and UAVs. There’s an equally strong emphasis on so-called training solutions, cybersecurity, and special forces gear.

Based on the Avnon Group’s data, the largest percentage of visitors to ISDEF 2017 were “End Users” comprising 35% followed by smaller percentages of “Procurement/R&D” and “Directors/Managers.” Of the total visitor population, 35.6% came from private industry while 34.6% were government officials.

ISDEF 2017 featured the largest number of exhibitors to date with 292 companies participating. This marked an almost 100% increase from ISDEF 2015 when just 154 companies exhibited. 58% of them were foreign, hailing from 24 different countries, with 42% of exhibitors being locals firms.

This year’s ISDEF had four pavilions for Israel’s major trade partners. These included India, the US, Czech Republic, and China. India had the largest pavilion, with 400 square meters of floor space for 50 companies. The US pavilion on the other hand was the biggest it had ever been for ISDEF and had 28 companies exhibiting their stuff. Only eight Chinese companies occupied their pavilion.

Southeast Asian countries also participated in ISDEF–Thailand and Singapore. But neither had a pavilion. Token exhibitors from Japan and Taiwan were present too.

The most number of exhibitors at ISDEF 2017 belonged to the “Armaments/Ballistics” sector. The rest of the top five industry categories are C4ISR, CBRNe/EOD, counter-terrorism, and cybersecurity/electronic warfare. The next ISDEF is from June 4 to 6, 2019. Companies are welcome to inquire about exhibiting and government and private sector visitors are more than welcome.

The entire post show report can be viewed on SlideShare.