New arms expo opens near Moscow

30 Jun, 2010 10:42 / Updated 14 years ago

State-of-the-art Russian weapons could bring in millions of dollars in investments at a military expo promoting the achievements of the country's arms industry.

Over 60 prototypes of tanks and military vehicles, UAVs are on display, with foreign producers also taking part at the event in the Moscow region.

The forum is being held for the first time and the main idea behind it is to promote Russia’s ever-growing weapons industry to the global market.

A special obstacle course has been built for the armored vehicles to show their full technical capabilities to potential foreign buyers.

The arms trade is an especially large business in Russia. The country is currently the second-biggest exporter of arms in the world after the US, with about 23 per cent of the market. The arms industry is the fifth biggest in Russia. In 2009, over US$8.5 billion worth of weapons were sold. This year it is hoped there will be more.