The UAE announced Sunday concluding military deals worth AED4.97 billion ($1.3 billion) with international companies. The announcement was made during the first day of the International Defense Exhibition & Conference (IDEX) and Naval Defense and Maritime Security Exhibition (NAVDEX) 2019 held in the capital, Abu Dhabi. The concluded contracts comprised 15 global companies and 18 local ones. The five-day 14th edition of IDEX and fifth edition of NAVDEX were inaugurated earlier on Sunday at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center under the auspices off UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, supreme commander of the union defense force. Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, attended the inauguration ceremony and received political and military senior figures. The agreements included a contract with U.S. Raytheon to purchase Patriot missiles for the air defense forces and another with Russias JSC Rosoboronexport to purchase Pantsir-ME shipborne air-defense system. UAE is the largest exhibitor at this years IDEX with 170 companies from the defense and its supporting sector, followed by the USA, France, Germany, Italy, and Saudi Arabia. The largest exhibitor from the UAE is the Emirates Defense Industries Company (EDIC), a joint venture between Mubadala Development and Tawazun Holding. Among EDICs latest military equipment on show was NIMR (AJBAN 447A), a multi-role armored vehicle, designed to be used in a wide range of specialist military roles, offering high levels of survival, mobility, and firepower. The 447A, which was launched at IDEX, is a forward-facing seven crew military tactical vehicle featuring a highly configurable armored cabin designed for by different units such as tactical response, border patrol, reconnaissance, counter-insurgency, and special forces teams. “The vehicle offers a modular design, featuring scalable levels of ballistic, mine blast and IED protection based on a conventional powertrain layout," said an official from EDIC.