Oct. 2017: This video is a quick run around the Bahrain International Defence Exhibition and Conference – BIDEC 2017. It is the first of its kind in the Kingdom and by all accounts a bit of a raging success. Lots of military might packed into an exhibition hall, even a massive Italian tank.
The logistics of getting all that machinery into Bahrain, guns, bullets, armoured vehicles, high tech gadgets, must have been a nightmare, but there it all was.
During the exhibition, Bahrain announced the purchase of an additional fleet of Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter aircraft. For a start it was another 16 of the upgraded version to add to the current fleet, with an option to buy 3 more. These will be the fourth generation F-16 variant. As Who Does What understands, the current fleet will be upgraded to. With some other armaments along with necessities, the deal is worth $3.8 Billion. Bahrain was the first Gulf country to employ this type of fighter, initially adding to it’s F5 fleet.
To coincide with the exhibition, several high-level conferences were held with topics including the current Yemen activities and indeed terrorism in general. Leading the conferences and as the patron of BIDEC, H.H. Brigadier Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Commander of the Royal Guard was a main speaker. Sheikh Nasser is also Chairman of BIDEC.
