Aviation Week & Space Technology - 30 March-12 April 2015

Bill Sweetman Washington

Industrial strategy guides

new light attack aircraft

P

aramount Group’s new Advanced High-performance

Reconnaissance Light Aircraft (Ahrlac) is on the way

to full production by 2017, six years after the program

began. The company does not of cially acknowledge it has

fi rm orders for the aircraft, saying only that it is “in advanced

negotiations,” but other sources suggest fi rm orders have

been received.

Ahrlac is part of Paramount’s strategy to unite and re-

vitalize South Africa’s defense industry. The company has

grown rapidly since the 2011 launch, both through organic

expansion and acquisitions. Major purchases have included

Advanced Technologies and Engineering (ATE), which was

in fi nancial dif culty prior to the acquisition. ATE developed

the Ahrlac mission computer and is a supplier of upgraded

Mil Mi-24 helicopters.

In 2013, Paramount acquired the Nautic Africa shipyard,

initiating development of a 42-meter (137.8-ft.) patrol boat

with a trimaran design, and later bought Veecraft, another

shipbuilder. The company has a strategic interest in Aerosud,

which performs substantial aerostructures work for Boeing

and Airbus, and has taken over Aerosud’s defense division

and integrated it into its aerospace group alongside ATE.

At the same time, the armored-vehicle design and manu-

facturing business, which led Paramount’s transition from a

service, training and logistics provider to a prime contractor,

has continued to grow, with manufacturing plants operational

or in preparation in partner nations such as Azerbaijan and

Kazakhstan. At the IDEX defense show in Abu Dhabi in

February, Paramount and Jordan’s King Abdullah II Design

and Development Bureau signed an agreement to co-produce

the 6 X 6 Mbombe mine-protected infantry fi ghting vehicle.

Paramount Chairman Ivor Ichikowitz stresses that the

company’s land and marine businesses have taught it lessons

that have carried over into Ahrlac and will guide future pro-

grams. Paramount’s armored vehicles are designed for easy

assembly, which has made it simpler to establish production

lines in dif erent countries.

The vehicles are of ered with dif erent drivetrain com-

ponents depending on a customer’s political alignment, fi -

nancial resources and requirements. The same principles

are apparent in Ahrlac’s no-tooling assembly—the joints

between airframe parts are self-aligning—the ability to

build its airframe parts on standard commercial machine

tools and a rapidly interchangeable sensor pallet built into

the lower fuselage.

Simplicity does not imply a low technology level, however:

Fully computer-defi ned design is essential to the assembly

process. Simple assembly with a minimum of specialized

equipment is also key to responding quickly to a market that

may demand “lots of small-quantity orders,” Ichikowitz says.

There is a national aspect to Paramount’s expansion. The

aim is to sustain South Africa’s defense expertise, which de-

veloped in the era of a global embargo and limited resources,

and is responsible for such infl uential innovations as the V-

hull mine-protected vehicle. “You can do things in South Af-

rica that you can’t do anywhere else,” Ichikowitz says. “But

National

Defense

DEFENSE ANALYSIS

DTI12 MARCH 30 -APRIL 12, 2015 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL AviationWeek.com/dti

Paramount’s Mbombe 6 X 6 armored vehicle

is the subject of a new co-production

agreement with Jordan.