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ASDA2011ASIATIC SEA DEFENSE & AEROSPACE

First time trade shows are a bit uncertain for attendees and exhibitors alike. It’s difficult to determine which start-up shows have a good chance of putting the products in front of the decision makers, before making the financial and time commitment to attend. Location, time of year, competing shows, all enter into these decisions. What help’s make the decision is who the promoter of the show is and how their other shows perform. In the case of ASDA, TNT Produc-tions, Inc. has many other successful shows and two more military shows in the region: BSDA in Bucharest, and GDA in Kuwait. We expected a good show, and TNT certainly made ASDA worth going to. Those who took the time to at-tend are, in the words of one exhibitor, “Plankholders” for future shows.

29-31 MARCH, 2011 | SPLIT, CROATIA

by DAN SHEA

ASDA 2011

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The City of Split, Croatia, was an excellent choice for a show in the region. The April weather is wonderful, the sights are breath-taking, the people are hospitable and the accommodations and expenses are very

reasonable. Split is located on the Dalmatian Coast of the Adriatic Sea, and the Croatian heritage is influ-enced heavily by millennia of interaction with Italy, just across the Sea. Split is also centrally located to many of the regional military groups, making it readily accessible and providing a good flow of attendees. The Spaladium Arena is under construction at present, but it provided a nice venue in the working show area and was easy enough to access. Croatia is expected to enter into the European Union in 2011, becoming the 28th official member of the EU. They are planning to change currency from the Kuna to the Euro in about 2016. On 1 April, 2009, Croatia became an official member of NATO. This has entailed many changes, but the armed forces of Croatia must meet NATO standards, and Croatia has earmarked approximately $4 Billion (U.S. Equiva-lent) for this process. The official notice says it all: “The Croatian Armed Forces Long-Term Develop-ment Plan 2006-2015, which has been approved by the government, details the acquisitions required to substantially modernize the Armed Forces. The mod-ernization plans include ongoing and future expected procurements in all 3 major defense sectors: air, land and navy.” This is a strong motivator for military and procurement personnel to want to meet with NATO item suppliers, and was the foundation that ASDA was built on. The Adriatic Sea and South Eastern Euro-pean Region is one of the major regions for expansion for both NATO and the European Union. The target countries for this event were Croatia, Bosnia & Herze-govina, Montenegro, Slovenia, Kosovo, Serbia, Albania and Macedonia. The Opening Ceremony remarks given by Justin Webb, President of TNT Productions, Inc. (ASDA pro-moter), introduced the NATO/EU concept to the par-ticipants, and laid the groundwork for the show. Mr. Webb’s group had provided individual country delegate boxes on an upper floor for meetings and preparation, and the delegates from surrounding countries were evident on the showroom floor. Croatian Prime Minis-ter Mrs. Jadranka Kosor then addressed the attendees, and Croatian President (and Supreme Commander of the Croatian Armed Forces) Mr. Ivo Josipović made an official visit to the show. This was a tri-service show, with land, air and sea military needs being represented as well as homeland security issues. The local small arms production was well-developed and exhibited in a professional manner, and those companies with international vision that rec-ognized the coming opportunities in Croatia are sure to benefit from having been “Plankholders” at ASDA. Generally speaking, TNT hit a home run with this first time show, and most exhibitors we spoke with planned on attending the 2013 edition of ASDA.

HS Produkt is a well-known firearms manufacturer in Croatia, with their semiautomatic HS2000 pistols currently being marketed in the U.S. as the Springfield Armory XD model. The VHS Bullpup designed 5.56x45mm rifle is drawing a lot of attention as well. www.hs-produkt.hr

Jurana Topić with HS Produkt HS-9 Sub-Compact 9x19mm.

HS Produkt from Croatia had a very busy booth, with a lot of profes-sional interest in the XD pistols.

HS PRODUKT

HS Produkt VHS-D 5.56x45mm bullpup rifle. The VHS-D is 30.9 inches (785mm) long with a barrel length of 19.68 inches (500mm) and 6 groove rifling in a 1:7 inch twist. The claimed 750 rounds per minute from this gas-operated system is consistent with most require-ments today, and the VHS uses a rotating bolt locking system.

ASDA 2011

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Mark Westrom, President of ArmaLite, Inc., with the AR-10 Super SASS rifle. ArmaLite was in Croatia pursuing local interest in the 7.62x51mm semiautomatic Super SASS rifle, the AR-30 in .338 Lapua Magnum, and the 12.7x99 (.50 BMG) AR-50A1 bolt action sniper rifle. ArmaLite has now moved into many markets outside of the USA. www.armalite.com

ARMALITE

Slovenian company AREX d.o.o. Sentjernej is a manufacturer of metal links for 5.56x45 (M27), 7.62x51mm (M13) and 12.7x99mm (.50 BMG M9). They’ve expanded into plastic versions of those links as well as supplying a variety of plastic blank ammo and drill rounds. www.arex.si

AREXIsraeli company Rafael featured their Samson RCWS-30, a remote controlled weapon station with 30mm cannon. The RCWS-30 keeps a low profile package that is non-intrusive into the host vehicle, and provides a -20° to +60° elevation and 360° rotation. www.rafael.co.il

RAFAEL

SADJ Contributing Writer Chris Bartocci works for Otis, and here he demon-strates the proper method of cleaning ArmaLite’s M4 variant. www.otistec.com

ARMALITE

Romarm is the state company representing much of the defense industry in Ro-mania, and they were there to give support to the new show as well as explore the market in the region. www.romarm.ro

ROMARM

Kongsberg showcased their PROTECTOR Remote Weapon Station (RWS). This re-motely controlled weapon station is for light and medium calibre weapons and can be mounted on any type of platform. The unit shown was adopted by the U.S. Army in 2007 as the CROWS II, and is utilizing the M2HB 12.7x99 (.50 BMG) machine gun. PROTECTOR has been in full scale production since December 2001. Since then more than 15,000 systems have been sold to 17 nations. www.kongsberg.com

KONGSBERG

The Croatian Police forces displayed their modern HK tactical weapons. Left to right: HK G36 C in 5.56x45mm; HK UMP-9 in 9x19mm; HK MP5A4 in 9x19mm with B&T suppressor; HK MP7A1 in 4.6x30mm with B&T suppressor.

CROATIAN POLICE

ASDA 2011

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Best Performance www.carl-walther.com

PPQOriginal WALTHER quality, perfect ergonomics and the newly developed Quick Defense trigger system: The WALTHER PPQ meets all the demands placed on a modern police pistol. The trigger has a very short reset path in keeping with the requirements of many special units. Short trigger travel = 7 mm Quick fi ring Slight trigger pull = 2500 g High capacity = 15/17 rounds

Ideal for special units.

PPQPPQOriginal WALTHER quality, perfect ergonomics and the newly developed Quick Defense trigger system: The WALTHER PPQ meets all the demands

Ideal for special units.

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Vol3+4_Walther_PPQ_222x146_EN_Print-17.06.11_NB.indd 1 27.06.11 14:58

The single shot bolt action MACS-3 Bullpup sniper rifle is in 12.7x99mm (.50 BMG). It is shown here with a Kahles ZF4 10x42 op-tic. Weight of rifle as shown is 8.8kg, with an overall length of 43.7 inches (1,110mm), and a barrel length of 29.9 inches (760mm).

The RBG-6 is a six shot, rotary drum 40x46mm shoulder fired grenade launcher. It uses low velocity 40mm and a spring-driven, gas-operated cylinder. The Croatian manufacturer of grenades is offering a variety of live HE and training rounds. The Croatian 40x46mm grenades have arming distances of 12-18 meters. www.metallic.hr

The single shot bolt action RT-20 Anti-Material sniper rifle is shown here with the K312 3-12x50 optic. This 17kg rifle fires the 20x110mm Hispano cartridge, allowing for the use of HE, HEI, and API ammunition. With a range of almost 2,000 meters, this recoilless assisted rifle can really intercept targets with serious damage, while allowing for shoulder firing. The offset shoulder place-ment puts the operator forward of the recoil-less venting, which combined with the well-designed muzzle brake, mitigates the recoil.

The new bolt action, magazine-fed MACS-4 sniper rifle is in 12.7x99 (.50 BMG) and is shown with a Kahles K312 optic. No other in-formation was available on this new rifle.

Agencija Alan d.o.o. is the official company that represents the Croatian Defense industry for sales. They cover everything from tanks to hel-mets, and footgear, training equipment as well as weapons. www.aalan.hr

AGENCIJA ALANKroko International d.o.o. kept the party running throughout the ASDA show. With over 150 of their internally designed products in use by Croatian Military forces, and sales in many other countries, Kroko was celebrating their successful year. It was nice to see the high spirits as well as high quality products. www.kroko.hr

Prism Lighting Services LLC was showing their PIL1000 inflatable light. This lightweight portable unit can either work on supplied electricity or with a small Honda gen-erator on-board. The fan in the unit inflates the tube to 4.5 meters (15 feet) with a 1,000 watt Metal Halide lamp at the top. This is perfect for emergency use or what we saw it for was night time range illumination. At the height the lamp is at, it illuminates approximately 12,000 square yards. www.prismlighting.net

KROKO

PRISM LIGHTING