The 10th International Naval Salon will open in St. Petersburg on Thursday, but it actually started working the day before. The Expoforum exhibition complex has an exhibition of the latest achievements of the military industry, and in the Gulf of Finland there are samples of ships and ships that Russia is ready to offer to foreign partners within the framework of military - technical cooperation.
Now both at Expoforum, at the open exhibition of military models, and at the berths are still deserted. The landscape is enlivened only when members of official delegations of foreign countries are brought to inspect the ships, the rest of the time there are only single military figures nearby. Firstly, it is very hot in St. Petersburg, the sun is more than 40 degrees, and secondly, the format of the MVMS was changed literally at the last moment and the salon became semi-closed.
Last year, the exhibition did not take place, but this year the organizers wanted to return to the format of a meeting-holiday organized not only for specialists. Then, due to the tightening of the anti-covid regime, free access to inspect the ships had to be closed, the purchased tickets were canceled, and the official program's event venues are allowed only if there is a negative test for COVID-19.
However, the organizers believe that the very fact of holding a full-time marine salon is still evidence of some improvement in the situation. 28 foreign delegations have already arrived in the city on the Neva, 285 participants will present their developments to them. This is somewhat less than in previous years, but, as the general director of the "Marine Salon" Alexander Koloskov noted, the area of the exhibition itself has remained almost at the same level. More than 2.6 thousand exhibits are placed on 13 thousand square meters, 150 of which are military samples.
For an ordinary viewer, the exposition of the salon will not immediately catch your eye - closed metal boxes or even separate boards similar to computer ones. You can only admire the equipment for underwater work-modern diving suits look impressive, and on ship models. But meanwhile, these are" working " models.
The water area of the port of St. Petersburg is not able to accommodate all the latest samples of domestic shipbuilding, so some of them are shown in reduced samples, including the diesel-electric submarine of project 677 "Amur 1650" and the small patrol ship of project 22800 "Tiger". For foreign customers, all projects will receive an additional letter "E" in the name - "export version".
- Representatives of six countries are already interested in the small rocket ship of the project 22800 "Karakurt", eight foreign customers are interested in the project of the coastal tactical missile complex" Rubezh-M", - Vadim Startsev, deputy head of the Marketing Department of Rosoboronexport JSC, said on the first day of the salon.
The business program of the forum includes a number of specialized presentations and conferences, including the XXI International Conference "Information Technologies in Shipbuilding-2021". However, as Vladimir Korolev, Vice President for military shipbuilding of USC JSC, noted, the MVMS is " not only a platform for concluding contracts and signing agreements, not only an opportunity to establish contacts and make acquaintances, but also a platform for promoting military-technical cooperation, for making military-political decisions."
By the way
This year, the organizers secretly dedicated the marine salon to the memory of Mikhail Zolotarev, who stood at its origins.
Maria Golubkova
