Let us begin on a lighter note, before proceeding to more serious and horrifying matters. Firstly, take a look below at the booth of Italy’s Finmeccanica Group. For reasons unknown to me, this aerospace OEM was allowed to participate in the expo, but was either not allowed to exhibit its products and services, except for its wall-posters, or its exhibits were all rendered invisible by some novel cloaking technologies that were being showcased at the expo!
Which brings us to an incredulous demonstration of creative advertising—surprisingly from a Ministry of Defence-owned defence public-sector undertaking like Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL). This is a classic case of either creativity going ballistic, or acute myopia. While one would have expected such advertisements (published in all show dailies that were distributed at the expo) to portray India-designed/built platforms like the Arjun Mk1 MBT, Project 17 FFG or Project 15A DDG, and the Tejas Mk1 LCA, in reality BEL appears to be trying to claim that its products are on board the General Dynamics Land Systems-built M-1A2 Abrams, and Lockheed Martin Littoral Combat Ship and F-16 Fighting Falcon MRCA!
Now, take a look below at the pathetic exhibitor booth of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Although Aero India 2015 was meant to be an aerospace expo, this did not prevent OEMs like the Kalyani Group from publishing advertisements in the show dailies about its Bharat-52 towed 155mm/52-calibre howitzer.
Now, read below what the MoD-owned Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) has to say about future supplies of all types of 155mm howitzers to the Indian Army in the years to come.
Now to the horrifying revelations emanating from the expo, which will be uploaded in the following threads.