Interceptor Show

The Interceptor Show (迎撃兵器ショー) is a weapons expo that occurred on early October in District 3 of Academy City in, where various technologies were on display, such as the HsPS-15 and the HsAFH-11. As it was called Interceptor Show, nothing too dangerous was displayed.

Purpose
Unlike previous exhibitions and expos, the show did not have a hint of having been created to stop a rampaging esper while doing as little damage as possible. Various technologies made in Academy City were put on display, from unmanned attack helicopters, the latest powered suits, an ultra-violet ray sniping device that was a high-output optical weapon that used a certain type of light wave to injure or kill, and could even be used for aerial bombings. All of the booths displayed various tools used to kill people.

Moreover. the things on display in the show were not meant to be sold to outside companies, as according to Yomikawa Aiho, the Interceptor Show was simply a show of strength by Academy City, showing off its destructive weapons to their enemies as a diplomatic tool. Moreover, the companies who would want to purchase the technology there, will not get the things shown there as is. As such, the things shown there when released for them will be reduced by 3 or 4 tiers below their original capabilities, barely creatable by technology outside of Academy City. Also, licenses to create the core parts of the weapons are being sold to organizations that work with Academy City in various countries. They need only to inform the City of how many the company is making and where they will be deployed.

The Interceptor Show is one of the ways Oyafune Monaka referred to about the City desperately gathering funds for the war, through making relatively insignificant weapons that do not take much technology to make and selling them at a high price as the latest weapons made by Academy City. Doing it all on the pretext of lowering the grade of the weapons being shown in the exhibition and of the goods being mass produced.

The Show
The show was apparently first open only to businessmen and other important figures, and then later be open for public viewing the next day.

Anti-Skill was out at the same time as the Interceptor Show in order to make preparations for the war, implying that many other Anti-Skill other than Aiho participated in the show. In the anime adaptation, Judgment is also tasked in helping security during the show.

Background
As war came closer to the doorsteps of Academy City, chaos springs out all over the world as people began to riot against the City in the name of their religion. However, this was a ploy by the Roman Catholic Church to ever turn the tides of war before it even began to their favor, as so they could get the Russian Orthodox Church to ally with them and not with Academy City.

Already with great hostilities formed at the end of the Church's invasion of the City back at the end of September, and now with the chaos that has risen around the world, almost as if it was a response to it, Academy City held the weapons expo, in spite of their insistence that they will not yield to it. However, clearly long did Academy City prepared for the inevitable of such chaos as their weapons and tools for the show have already been manufactured beforehand, predicting it, and made it so that they could take control of the aftermath instead of stopping the chaos from happening in the first place. Despite this, the city still feels like it needs to gather funds for war, and the Interceptor Show is one of the ways to gather it.