Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
The dreams of every young boy who spends his spare time playing with army men and imagining himself driving mean machines were realised last week at the Bahrain International Defence Exhibition & Conference (BIDEC).
The event, held under the patronage of His Majesty King Hamad at the Bahrain International Exhibition & Convention Centre, was a hive of activity for three days as members of the public were allowed an up-close and personal with a plethora of vehicles, weapons, uniforms and exhibits.
Furthermore, a number of important meetings were held and deals were signed to further national security and protect the citizens of Bahrain. One example was a $3.8billion agreement to purchase sixteen F-16s between Bahrain and the US’s Lockheed Martin Corporation.
Yours truly was an excited visitor, and, over the course of two hours, stopped at the vast majority of the 120-plus individual exhibitions showcasing the latest technology, equipment and hardware across land, sea and air worth many millions of dinars.
I have a deep love for tanks, so it was no surprise that my first port of call was the vehicle exhibitions to examine these marvellous pieces of machinery.
And, what fantastic beasts they were, resplendent in full scale with scores of technical information and explanations for the various gadgets and features. One thing I particularly enjoyed about the whole event was the amount of written factual information there was. It’s great to look at stuff, but it’s much better when supplied with context and history.
Outside, there were live demonstrations of military SUVs and other light armour vehicles, plus an obstacle course so you could really see how caterpillar tracks work. What a fascinating invention.
As someone who made and painted Airfix models as a child, the replica helicopters and planes were a delight that had me nostalgic for those days spent in my bedroom with a tube of glue and a small paintbrush. Dad would be proud!
I’ve never shared the same interest in the naval side of things, but seeing a live demonstration of how the technology in submarines and other vessels work, I may have to change my mind. I particularly enjoyed seeing the array of torpedoes and missiles that were stacked high on the wall … hopefully they were dummies.
My final port of call was the weapons and ammunition area. As an avid video gamer, I must have shot hundreds of thousands of bad guys with these very weapons, except now they were actually in front of my eyes and not through a screen. Machine guns, pistols, sniper rifles … you name it, it was there.
I’d also like to thank the Bahrain Defence Force personnel on site for being so friendly and willing to talk about the exhibits. Everyone I met was approachable and seemed to hold genuine enthusiasm to talk and show how things worked, despite me being one of more than 8,000 people who turned up on one day alone.
I mean, I love Star Wars and cheesecake, but if you asked me to dish out the same nuggets of history about those all day, I’d soon throw my lightsaber in the bin along with the cake tin!
But then again, these are real, mighty machines used in battle and deserve the utmost respect … defence of the realm is no game.
