At Malaysia’s arms bazaar, drone dealers chase Southeast Asian market share

Watch a cheap commercial drone destroy a battle tank on the frontlines in Ukraine, or a cut-price an Iranian Shahed menace Tel Aviv, then ask yourself why Southeast Asia’s defence ministries are suddenly very interested in unmanned aerial vehicles. The answer was on full display last week at the Defence Services Asia (DSA) exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, where vendors from Abu Dhabi to Pretoria were chasing deals in one of the global arms trade’s hottest emerging markets. “There is huge demand fr...

By Joseph Sipalan