Boys with their toys make billions for Britain
SKETCH
Hordes of foreign men with Borat-style moustaches and badly dyed crew-cuts jostle with tall soldiers in a long queue outside Dockland's Excel Centre. Among the Brits, most are ex-army, sizing each other up by their ties. Bar a few blonde promotions girls, they're all men.
This is the first day of the Defence & Security Equipment International exhibition, the world's biggest show of land, sea and air weapons and defence technology, which takes place at the Excel every two years.
It's huge. More than 1300 exhibitors show their wares; tanks, robots and weapons loom over the Excel's enormous halls. But beneath the flashy exhibits, serious work is being done. Last year, the arms industry brought in export sales worth £9.5 billion.
Exhibitors come from 48 countries. The guest list includes Bahrain and Saudi Arabia - despite their both having suppressed democracy uprisings. Government invitations also went to Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan and Kazakhstan - but not to Libya or China, unlike last year.
But exports are a subject the industry is keen to dodge. Defence technology firm Cobham has a large stand filled with robots to detect risks without involving humans, and when asked if the company would be happy selling to Bahrain, Greg Caires, vice-president of media, says: "This is not an offensive system, it's about saving lives." I ask instead about one of their communication satellites. "How the end user uses it is their business," he says. But he adds that Cobham sticks to strict export rules imposed by the UK and the US.
The defence sector remains crucial to Britain, responsible for 110,000 jobs and sales of £22 billion last year.
The smaller players at the exhibition say the trade show is more important than ever. "Our stand is a bit bigger this year," says BMT Defence, a Teddington-based consultancy with 700 employees in Britain. "David Cameron's push on exports is really helping us out," says spokesman Rob Steel.
The company doesn't, he adds, do business with Middle East nations. "But it's not an ethical stance," business development manager Richard Danns adds. "We're a small company and it takes huge resources to enter those markets. It's a business decision."
