Astana hosts second exhibition of arms and military equipment

Kazakhstan, Astana, May 7 / Trend D. Mukhtarov / The second KADEX-2012 exhibition of arms and military equipment is underway in Astana and today is open to the general public. Astana residents and visitors arrived at the Air Base of the Kazakh Air Forces to personally familiarise themselves with the exhibition, the Kazakh Defence Ministry told Trend today. The supreme commander of the armed forces of the country, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev attended the opening ceremony. The third day began with a performance of the military bands of Germany, India, Poland and Tajikistan, the military orchestra of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe and combined military orchestra of the Kazakh Armed Forces. T-72B tanks first appeared on the field which had been modernised at the Kazakhstan Engineering enterprise. Old analogue radios were replaced by new digital ones. Then, the TOS-1A heavy flamethrower system and the BMPT tank support combat vehicle appeared. They were received by the Kazakh Army last year. BTR-82A armoured troop carriers were also demonstrated. Then the armorer combat wheeled vehicle BTR-4E, produced by UkrOboronProm, the multi-terrain Tiger vehicle made in Russia and the combat reconnaissance vehicle Cobra made by Otokar enterprise in the Republic of Turkey were all on show. Off-road Land Rover vehicles and the highly manoeuvrable multi-purpose military armorer Hummer vehicles were also demonstrated. L-39, MiG-29, Su-27 aircraft also made demonstrative flights. Aircraft from other countries participating in the exhibition also flew including the AN-200-74TK of the Kharkov Aviation Enterprise, a Super Jet passenger plane of the Russian experimental design bureau and the military transport plane C-295 of the Airbus firm and other aircraft demonstrated their flights. A meeting of the coordinating Board of Commissioners of the CSTO member states on advertising and exhibition activities was held. This is the fourth meeting. The participants get together and discuss joint promotional and exhibition activities in military and economic cooperation between the CSTO member states. The agenda included the discussion of proposals to form a list of upcoming international exhibitions for the next two years. Today the business meetings and negotiations continued between the representatives of the Kazakh Ministry of Defence, the Kazspetsexport Company, Kazakhstan Engineering National Company and the heads of foreign manufacturers of military products for special and dual purpose. Some agreements on military and technical cooperation have been signed. Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az