"Hemus 2024" Post-event Overview

 
Overview.

The Sixteenth edition of the International Defense Equipment and Services Exhibition "Hemus 2024" took place from June 5 to 8, 2024 at the Plovdiv International Fair. The event took place in complex geopolitical and economic conditions. Significant efforts were made by the organizers to ensure not only attractive but also safe venue and conditions for exhibitors and visitors.

Despite the challenging environment, Hemus 2024 achieved significant growth in all trade parameters compared to the previous edition of the exhibition in 2022. In particular, Hemus 2024 expanded the covered exhibition area to accommodate the increased number of exhibitors. For the first time in more than 14 years, three exhibition halls (Halls 3, 7 and 6) were being used at Hemus 2024. A significant number of new exhibitors from countries new to Hemus successfully participated in this edition.

On an exhibition area of a total of 5177 sq.m. , of which 2820 sq.m. covered and 2357 sq.m. opened, 157 exhibitors were presented, of which 80 Bulgarian and 77 foreign from 25 countries, namely the Republic of Austria (3 companies), the Australian Union, the Kingdom of Belgium, the Republic of Bulgaria, the Federal Republic of Germany (7 companies), the Republic of Greece (2 companies), the Kingdom Denmark (2 companies), Arab Republic of Egypt (5 companies), State of Israel (6 companies), Republic of India (3 companies), Kingdom of Spain (2 companies), Italian Republic (4 companies), People's Republic of China (3 companies), Kingdom of Norway, Islamic Republic of Pakistan (2 companies), Republic of Poland (4 companies), Republic of Korea (8 companies), Romania (2 companies), USA (10 companies), Slovenia, Republic of Turkey (5 companies), Ukraine, Hungary, The French Republic (2 companies) and the Czech Republic (6 companies).

Among our esteemed exhibitors, to whom we offered hosting, was once again a Contingent from the US Land Forces, which participated in the Static Display together with Bulgarian military formations.

The Bulgarian academic environment continued to show significant interest, with a total of 12 scientific units and higher education institutions participating as exhibitors in Hemus 2024, of which 5 were military and 7 were civil.

Overall, regardless of the complex economic and geopolitical situation in the world, the achieved commercial parameters of "Hemus 2024" exceeded by 10% to 60% the achieved of the previous edition.

This edition of the exhibition caused widespread interest and visits from a number of representatives of the Bulgarian state institutions, from official delegations and guests of the Minister of Defense, from delegations of international organizations, from the diplomatic corps, from representatives of Bulgarian and foreign business and last but not least from many Bulgarian and foreign citizens. A positive trend is the attraction of new visitors from all categories, as well as high-ranking delegations from new countries and international organizations while maintaining the interest of traditional visitors.

For example, on the Bulgarian side, the exhibition was opened and viewed by the President of the Republic of Bulgaria, by Member of the Parliament, by the Minister of Defense, by Deputy Ministers of Defense, of Economy and Industry and of Innovation and Growth, by the Deputy Chief of Defense, by the Commanders of the Services, generals and admirals.

The exhibition was also visited by a total of 24 foreign delegations, 17 of which were on a bilateral basis, guests of the Minister of Defense and 7 delegations from international organizations.

Guests of the Minister of Defense were delegations from Armenia (Minister of Defense), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Minister of Defense), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Deputy Minister of Defense and Military Delegation, Defense Attaché), the United States (Assistant Deputy Minister of Defense, Defense Attaché and Head of the Office of Military Cooperation), Federal Republic of Germany (Ambassador and Defense Attache), Arab Republic of Egypt (Defense Attaché and Delegation from the Ministry of Military Industry), Republic of Poland (National Armaments Director), French Republic (National Director of Armaments and Defense Attaché), Azerbaijan (Chief Advisor in the Ministry of Defense Industry), Turkey (Defense Attaché), Hungary (Executive Director of the Export Agency), Republic of Croatia (Military Delegation), Socialist Republic of Vietnam (military delegation), Georgia, Republic of Greece (military delegation from MoD), Republic of Romania (delegation from MoD), Republic of North Macedonia (military delegation).

Seven international organizations were represented by their delegations, namely: NATO (International Staff), NATO Support and Procurement Agency - NSPA (General Manager), European Space Program Agency - EUSPA (Executive Director), Association of Space Agencies in Europe - EURISY (President), Directorate General "Defense Industry and Space" (DG DEFIS) of the European Commission, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Innovation Council (EIC).

Along with the official delegations, Hemus 2024 had visitors from 45 countries from Europe, North and South America, Africa, Australia and Asia. A number of countries were represented as visitors and by their Defense attachés accredited in Sofia.

The total number of visitors to the exhibition and the accompanying events exceeded 3,000 people, which represents a positive trend that has persisted over time after 2018. This increase is primarily due to the growth in interest shown by representatives of Bulgarian and foreign state institutions, the international business environment, the Bulgarian academic environment and visitors by invitation, regardless of the complex geopolitical and economic conditions.

The conducted independent sociological research takes repeatedly into account the complicated geopolitical and economic situation in which "Hemus 2024" was held. In this environment, the edition managed to attract a significant number of new exhibitors and visitors, and was marked by an overall good realization of the previously set goals. The results of the survey show that there are sufficient prerequisites for high levels of overall satisfaction and intentions to participate in Hemus 2026 . In conclusion, the survey registers a growing trust in the specialized exhibition and a high assessment of the specific rational benefits of it.

The exhibition and accompanying events were covered by representatives of over 57 Bulgarian and foreign media.

The exposure in practice continues to cover the full development cycle of a defense product or service – education, training, innovation, R&D, production, commercialization, acquisition, life cycle suppor and utilization.

The expanded international participation and strong international, European and Euro-Atlantic interest in the exhibition made it a high-level international forum for the realization of interests, both in the business-to-business, state-to-state and business-to-state domains.

In this way, "Hemus 2024" proved the trend not only to be a growing success over the years, but also established itself as one of the most reliable partners of national and international institutions, the armed forces, the defense industry and the academic community in the interest of national security and industrial development.

Therefore, we once again and proudly reaffirm the main essential characteristics of "Hemus", namely:

"TRADITION, outstanding PERFORMANCE, growing SUCCESS, SUSTAINABILITY".

Opening, accompanying events and closing of the exhibition.

The exhibition was opened by the President of the Republic of Bulgaria and Supreme Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, Rumen Radev. The Minister of Defense, Atanas Zapryanov, addressed the exhibitors and visitors with a greeting.

Among the officials at the opening ceremony were also the Chief secretary and Advisers to the President of the Republic of Bulgaria, Member of the Parliament, the Deputy ministers of Defense, Economy and industry and Innovation and growth, the Deputy Chief of Defense, the Commanders of the Services, Generals and Admirals, the Ministers of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Armenia, the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Assistant Deputy Secretary of Defense of the United States, heads of over 25 diplomatic missions in our country, over 50 accredited Defense attachés and Commercial attachés, as well as many Bulgarian and foreign guests. The ceremony took place with the active participation of the National Guard, and parts of the "Stars" show were presented before the opening.

Immediately after the opening, according to established tradition, a dynamic display was held, in which two fighters from the Bulgarian Air Force took part.

Traditionally, before the opening, a press conference was held where the representatives of the media were informed by the General director of the Plovdiv International Fair about the importance of the exhibition and its main parameters. The Deputy Minister of Defense, in her capacity as the Main representative of the Organizing Committee for the preparation and organization of the exhibition, emphasized the fact that the main purpose of the Hemus 2024 exhibition is to provide an opportunity to demonstrate new developments in defense and security and to support contacts between companies, science and educational institutions and the administration, as the exhibition traditionally continues to mark a significant increase in participating exhibitors and visitors, as well as in occupied exhibition areas compared to previous editions. It was also noted that the growth of international interest in "Hemus 2024" and the international character of the event and its accompanying events is also significant, as the exhibition was visited by 24 foreign official delegations and delegations from international organizations, two Ministers of Defense, two Deputy Ministers, a number of National Armaments Directors, etc.

The Deputy Minister of Economy and Industry emphasized that with its 16th edition, the International Defense Equipment and Services Exhibition "Hemus 2024" has once again confirmed as a significant importance in South-Eastern Europe. Proof of this is the wide participation of Bulgarian and foreign companies and government representatives. Today, Hemus 2024 is an established platform for presenting international industrial cooperation in defense and security, for developing existing and creating new partnerships, added the Deputy Minister of Economy and Industry.

Hemus 2024 accompanying events.

Business meetings.

"Hemus 2024 " has established itself as an extremely successful platform for business meetings of all kinds - g2g, g2b, b2b. More than 60 business meetings of various types were requested, organized and held, both at the request of the delegations and other visitors, and at the request of the exhibitors themselves.

Regarding the g2g format, all official delegations held business meetings with the leadership of the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense, and many of them - bilaterally.

Another event of the same format was held on June 7 - the Balkan-Ukrainian Defense Industries Forum. The purpose of the forum was to provide a platform to strengthen cooperation and to create new business contacts between the defense industry of Ukraine and Bulgaria in line with the common efforts to strengthen the defense-industrial cooperation between the European Union and Ukraine.

Another g2b event was the signing of an Agreement under the Industrial Cooperation Program between Lockheed Martin and Avionams JSC.

In the same format ( g2b) was the presentation of Egypt's military factories by the Egyptian Ministry of Defense Industry.

Regarding the b2b format , more important were the presentations made by the companies " Elta Systems", "Rafael", " Elbit ", "Samel- 90", " Sage Consulting , etc. More than 30 exhibitors declared and held business meetings with their business partners.

Dynamic display.

Immediately after the opening and according to the tradition restored in 2020, an aviation dynamic display was held. Two MiG-29 aircraft from the Bulgarian Air Force took part in the show.

The dynamic display of this year's edition was expanded with another event - demonstrations on the exhibition grounds by the Joint Command of the Special Forces. With this, a tradition interrupted in 2016 of dynamic participation of our Special Forces as an event accompanying the exhibition was restored.

Static display of armament and equipment of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Bulgaria, the Ministry of the Interior of the country and the European Command of the US Armed Forces.

The exhibits were displayed in 9 centers - Combat vehicles, Weapons, Optical instruments and special equipment, Equipment for personal and ballistic protection, Special and laboratory equipment, Modeling and simulation systems, Specialized vehicles, Center for the equipment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Center for the equipment of the European Command of the US Armed Forces, at which an armored combat vehicle of the infantry and a vehicle of a Multiple Launch Rocket System were presented.

Live Firings at "Zmeyovo" Military Testing Range.

Live firings within the framework of the International Defense Equipment Exhibition "Hemus-2024" took place on June 7, at the Central Artillery Technical Test Range (Zmeyovo Range).

14 companies and organizations (two of them foreign) took part in the demonstration shootings, which demonstrated 40 types of new defense products. The firings were observed by 8 foreign delegations and Defense Attachés and a number of companies from the defense sector.

During the firings, 40 types of new defense products from the following Bulgarian and foreign manufacturers from the defense industry were demonstrated: " Optiks " AD - Panagyurishte, "BRONYA" EAD - Sofia, "ATN Defense " EOOD - Plovdiv, "SAMEL 90" AD - Samokov , "ALEKS-05 BG" EOOD - Sofia, " Dunarit " AD - Ruse, " Sage Consultants AD - Sofia , "Aheloy OPM" OOD - Sofia, "EMKO" OOD - Sofia, "Vazovski mashinostoitelni zavodi" EAD - Sopot, Institute for Space Research and Technologies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, D-Fend Solutions - Israel and USA , and STEYER ARMS GmbH - Austria. Ammunitions related to tests conducted at CATIP were also demonstrated.

The demonstrations of the Institute of Space Research and Technology - BAS  and their partners from D-Fend Solutions, who demonstrated multicopters , drones, avionics , ground stations and anti-drone systems aroused great interest.

The Live Firings were attended by the Deputy Minister of Defense, the Commander of the 61st mbr , the Director of the Directorate "Armament Policy" - Ministry of Defense, the director of the Defense Institute "Professor Tsvetan Lazarov", as well as officers and employees from the Land Forces, National Military University "Vasil Levski" - Veliko Tarnovo and Club "Friends of the Bulgarian Army".

The event aroused wide interest among the high-ranking guests and visitors of the exhibition, as well as among exhibitors from the country and abroad. Among those presented were the delegations of Azerbaijan , Saudi Arabia, Croatia and Vietnam. At the invitation of the Bulgarian companies, guests from Ukraine participated.

The Live Firings were also observed by representatives of a significant number of Bulgarian and foreign companies, among them “Sage consultancy” AD, “GES BG ", "SAMEL 90" AD, "BIG 97" AD, "ARSENAL" AD, " Transmobil " EOOD, "ARMADA PONTIKA" EOOD, "EMKO" EOOD, " Dunarit " AD and others .

The event was broadcasted on alive on the territory of the exhibition, on the monitors of the information stands in all three halls.

"Research аnd Innovation for Security, Defence and Space Week".

This new accompaniyng event took place from 6th to 8th June 2024 under the general patronage of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU and the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium to Bulgaria and was dedicated to the 155-th anniversary of the establishment of BAS and 15-th anniversary of the establishment of the Defense Institute.

The scientific forum was jointly organized by the Defense Institute - Ministry of Defense and the Center for National Security and Defense Research at the BAS (CNSDR-BAS). The following thematic events were included: International Scientific Conference "Research, Innovation and Industrial Cooperation - A Paradigm for Adequate Defense", Seminar on: "Using Satellite Data for Disaster Risk Management", Seminar on: "Space for a Sustainable Future " and the Hackathon "Cosmos for a green, sustainable and secure Europe".

The main focus of the opening and plenary session was on the theme of 'Space for Security and Defence'. In his address, the Minister of Defense emphasized the strategic importance of research and innovation and the contribution of space technologies to guarantee security and defense. Addresses were also made by The Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium to the Republic of Bulgaria, and the Honorary Senator and President of EURISY.

The following plenary session was attended by experts and representatives of key organizations - the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Defense, the Director of the European Space Program Agency (EUSPA), representatives of the Directorate General "Defense Industry and Space" ( DG DEFIS ) of the European Commission.

The main accents of the Twelfth International Scientific Conference were development on technologies and capabilities for raising on defensive capabilities of the Armed Forces, security and defense innovation and experience​ from the war in Ukraine, the normative base for scientific research, the existing financial tools for implementation of defense innovations, etc.​​

Participation in the conference also took representatives from corporations and companies, such as Leonardo, Rheinmetall, Konigsberg, IAI (Israel Aerospace Industries), etc. Favorable conditions for facilitating new contacts and interaction between representatives, exchange of experience and for future cooperation were created.

On the event were present over 180 delegates and guests from the country and abroad - from Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Economy and Industry, Defence Staff, Joint command on the forces, Service Commanders, the academic community, representatives of Bulgarian and foreign companies and organizations and from the defensive industry . On the conference were presented over 100 scientific reports.

The workshop "Using satellite data for disaster risk management" was jointly organized by EUSPA and EURISY, with a focus on EU space capabilities and their application at national level throughout the disaster risk management cycle. The session was opened by Mr Mathieu Bataille from the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI). Ms. Christina Gianopapa, Head of the Office of the Executive Director of EUSPA, Mr. Gabriel Lazazzara from ALSO Space, as well as Ms. Dinka Dinkova, from DG DEFIS, also participated.

The workshop "Space for a sustainable future" was opened by the Mayor of the Municipality of Plovdiv - Mr. Kostadin Dimitrov, who emphasized on the importance of space information for dealing with the impact of climate change on regional development. The session "Civil Security from Space" started with Dr. Christopher Topping from the European Space Agency (ESA). Mr. Martin Taslakov - project manager at the European Innovation Council (ECI) also took part.

The second session was devoted to the use of space technologies for the purpose of the transition to a green future. Speakers were Dr. Tan-Tam Le from Climate - KIC at the European Institute for Innovation and Technology - EIT, Mrs. Bogdana Tsonevska from EKA, Prof. Ekaterina Bachvarova - director of the Institute for Climate, Atmosphere and Water Research at the BAS. Katya Dimitrova participated on behalf of the "Risk-Space-Transfer" Technology Transfer Office - BAS. Mrs. Michaela Ivanova presented the activities and projects of the Municipality of Gabrovo aimed at achieving climate neutrality.

The second day ended with a plenary session in which Ms. Cristina Gianopappa, Head of the EUSPA Executive Director's Office, Dr. Christopher Topping from ESA, Honorary Senator Ms. Dominique Tillmans , President of EURISY and Ms. Dinka Dinkova, Deputy Head of Department "Innovations and New Space - Space Defense", DG DEFIS, EC discussed the role of Space as a key factor for climate adaptation.

The HEMUS Innovation Hackathon: "Space for a green, sustainable and secure Europe" was held with the support of the National Science Program "Security and Defense".

The teams, using digital technologies and data from remote sensing of the Earth, proposed their solutions to current problems and new ideas for a more sustainable, safer and greener future for Europe. Eight teams participated in the competition - 5 from our military educational institutions and 3 from civilians.

The jury ranked the team of the Technical University - Sofia in first place, the team from the Agricultural University - Plovdiv took the 2-nd place, the team of the Military Academy "Georgi S. Rakovski" took the 3-rd place.

Special awards were given to the teams from the Technical University - Sofia, Plovdiv branch, as well as the team from the Vasil Levski National Military University.

Industry Forum.

The meeting of the industrial forum was on the topic "Opportunities for the Bulgarian defense industry in view of the increased efforts to promote European and Euro-Atlantic cooperation in the field of armaments". The forum attracted the participation of a wide range of representatives of the Bulgarian and European institutions, as well as representatives of the Bulgarian and foreign defense industry, scientific institutes and organizations.

Main highlights of the program were the activities of the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA); presentation of the current European initiatives and programs in support of the defense industry - the new "European Strategy for the Defense Industry", the draft regulation for the creation of a European Program for the Defense Industry, etc. The forum was opened by the Deputy Minister of Defense. The Deputy Minister of Economy and Industry and the Deputy Minister of Innovation and Growth also addressed the participants with greetings and wishes for fruitful work.

In the discussions took part Stacey Cummings, General Manager of NSPA, a representative of the Directorate-General for Defense Industry and Space of the EC, representatives of the Ministry of Economy and Industry, the Institute of Defense and the Ministry of Defence.

Closing the exhibition.

The closing ceremony was held on June 8 from 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The Deputy Minister of Defense, Adelina Nikolova, presented a plaque to each of the exhibitors, as well as certificates for innovative developments presented at the exhibition to six teams from Vasil Levski National University, Faculty of Artillery, Air Defense and CSI, Shumen.

The organizers and the Plovdiv International Fair presented each exhibitor with a Certificate of Participation.