The biennial International Defense Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) 2013, which starts here Sunday, doubled in size compared to 2011 and puts this year a special focus on naval defense and unmanned aerial systems.

Launched in 1993, IDEX has become one of the largest fairs for defense technology and military equipment in the world. This year' s IDEX hosts around 1,112 exhibiting companies from 59 countries.

The United States, the biggest exhibiting country, has over 180 participating firms from the defense industry. The host country United Arab Emirates (UAE) has 144 companies on the ground, while Germany and China are present with 69 and 25 firms, respectively.

This year's IDEX hosts NAVDEX, a special platform for the navy ships. Visiting vessels from the UAE, the United States, France, Britain, Italy and Pakistan are berthed. A special focus on unmanned aerial equipment like reconnaissance drones is part of this IDEX, as demand for such equipment in the Middle East is worth 1 billion U.S. dollars, according to the fair's organizers.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), military spending reached 1.74 trillion dollars in 2011 globally. While defense budgets in many Western countries were mostly cut due to austerity measures in 2011, states in the Middle East belong to the largest military spenders in the world in relation to defense spending per capita.

SIPRI figures show that the Middle East stepped up its military expenditure by 4.6 percent in 2011, but was outperformed by Eastern Europe.

The ongoing turmoil in some Arab countries, tensions between the Gulf Arab states and Iran, and permanent Israeli hostilities against Lebanon and Syria have fueled the demand for military hardware and arms in the region. Algeria, for example, increased its defense budget in 2011 by 44 percent to 2.5 billion dollars, due worries over violent spillover from Libya. According to SIPRI, defense budgets from the UAE and Iran are not fully disclosed.

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