– I due gruppi del Sud Africa, Paramount Group and Aerosud Holdings Ltd, hanno annunciato la costruzione di Ahrlac, aero da guerra compatto, che unisce le capacità di un drone, di un elicottero da guerra, e di un aereo da ricognizione (militare e civile), primo modello di questo tipo sul mercato globale degli armamenti.
– Arhrlac sta per Advanced High Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft (aero leggero avanzato ad alta performance di ricognizione).
– Per la ricognizione la maggior parte dei paesi africani utilizza aerei cargo modificati o caccia a propulsione turbo.
– I dirigenti dei due gruppi non hanno rivelato il costo, che si aggirerebbe attorno a 1/3-1/2 dell’Apache da guerra della Boeing, che costa sui $20mn.
– Il modello sarà un test sulla capacità del Sud Africa di competere con i giganti Usa e Cina.
– Ahrlac è studiato per essere utilizzato oltre che dalle forze armate, da polizia, guardie di confine e agenti forestali;
– previste potenzialità di vendita in Asia, America Latina ed Est Europa, oltre che in Africa, in competizione con costruttori occidentali che in genere preferiscono evitare i minori mercati africani.
– Ahrlac, a due posti, può volare lento o veloce, e una autonomia di volo di 7 ore; sarà costruito a Centurion, appena fuori Johannesburg, dove vengono costruiti anche componenti per ali, sedili e cabine per Boeing e Eads. I voli test saranno nel 2013.
– Ahrac sarà uno dei primi aerei prodotti in Africa dopo che Armscor Defence Institute Ltd. ha sviluppato negli anni Ottanta l’elicottero da guerra Roivaalk.
– Durante l’apartheid il Sud Africa ha creato una forte industria degli armamenti, per contrastare le sanzioni Onu;
o quando entrò in guerra con Namibia e Angola, i gruppi degli armamenti svilupparono camion anti-bomba e un precursore dei veicoli corazzati usati dagli Usa in Afghanistan e Irak.
o Con Mandela, il Sudafrica democratico ridusse la spesa per armamenti, e i ruppi nazionali finirono declino; nel 1990-1997 la spesa per la Difesa scese da $5,1MD a $2,66 MD.
– Ora, il ministro della Difesa sudafricano vuole ristrutturare le forze armate, anche con nuovi equipaggiamenti per la sicurezza al confine e contro la pirateria, con un aumento della spesa attuale che è sui $4MD.
– Paramount ha iniziato equipaggiando le missioni di peacekeeping in Africa; nel 2005 si è unita a Aerosud per rinnovare i Mirage III e gli F-1 di Dassault per Gabon e Rep. del Congo; nel 2008 Paramount ha acquisito il 19% di Aerosud; l’anno seguente è iniziato il lavoro per Ahrlac.
Il presidente del gruppo Paramount, Ivor Ichikowitz, ha lavorato per decenni come distributore di motocicli ed armi; 45 anni, nato in Sudafrica da genitori lituani.
South Africa Firms Build Niche Plane
By PATRICK MCGROARTY in Centurion, South Africa and DANIEL MICHAELS in Brussels
– Two South African companies are attempting to elbow their way into the global defense market with an unusual new aircraft developed on home soil.
– Paramount Group and Aerosud Holdings Ltd. on Tuesday will unveil the Ahrlac, a compact plane that they say merges the capabilities of a drone, an attack helicopter and surveillance aircraft.
– "There’s nothing like it in the marketplace," says Paul Potgieter, managing director of closely held Aerosud.
– The Ahrlac—short for Advanced High Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft—aims to fill a niche left by less-versatile and more-expensive rivals. Most countries on the continent rely on modified cargo planes or turboprop fighters for surveillance work, but the Ahrlac is a multipurpose alternative that’s marketed for perform military and civilian reconnaissance. It will cater to African governments involved in combat, peacekeeping and humanitarian work, he says.
– Aerosud and Paramount executives decline to reveal the Ahrlac’s price but say it will be one-third to one-half the cost of Boeing Co.’s Apache attack helicopter. The Apache sells for about $20 million, according to the U.S. Congressional Budget Office.
See a promotional video from South Africa’s Paramount Group for its new plane, the Ahrlac, or High Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft, which will be publicly unveiled for the first time Tuesday.
– The project will test whether a relatively small player such as South Africa can join a market with the likes of the U.S. and China. To revive a moribund industry, South African defense companies say they are pitching products that are simpler and less expensive than those built in the West.
– Paramount Group Chairman Ivor Ichikowitz envisioned the Ahrlac after decades as a motorcycle distributor and arms salesman. The burly 45-year-old, born in South Africa to Lithuanian parents, says he realized "the future of peacekeeping and defense in Africa was going to be airborne."
– Paramount and Aerosud say the Ahrlac’s is designed for police, border patrols and forestry agencies—not just defense ministries. They also see potential sales in Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Paramount and Aerosud say they have received interest from potential customers but decline to say from whom.
– Governments in Africa contend with huge distances, unsecured borders and bad roads. Most lack funding for advanced Western jet and helicopter technology. So Paramount aimed to create an aircraft "that would do 80% of what a helicopter did but at a fraction of the cost," Mr. Ichikowitz says.
– The two-person Ahrlac has a bulbous cockpit and a simple propeller mounted at the rear, allowing an unobstructed view for reconnaissance. The plane can fly fast or slow and stay airborne for up to seven hours on a tank of fuel. It will be manufactured just outside Johannesburg at Aerosud’s complex of low brick buildings in Centurion, where the company also makes wing components, seats and galleys for Boeing and the Airbus unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. Test flights are scheduled to begin in six months and production, as early as 2013. The budget for development and certification was $200 million, Mr. Ichikowitz says.
– Once it rolls out, the Ahrlac will become one of the first aircraft to be produced in Africa since South Africa’s Armscor Defence Institutes (Pty.) Ltd. developed the Roivaalk attack helicopter in the 1980s.
– Under an apartheid regime that lasted into the 1990s, South Africa built a muscular arms industry to survive United Nations sanctions. As South Africa went to war in neighboring Namibia and Angola, South African defense companies developed blast-resistant trucks and a precursor to the armored vehicles that carried U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
But under President Nelson Mandela, a democratic South Africa slashed defense spending, sending the domestic arms industry into decline. The defense budget plummeted to $2.66 billion in 1997 from $5.1 billion in 1990, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Many of South Africa’s best engineers emigrated and joined foreign manufacturers.
– South Africa’s defense industry could be poised for resurgence. The country’s defense minister is lobbying to overhaul the armed forces, in part by buying new equipment aimed at border security and piracy rather than ground wars. Defense Minister Lindiwe Sisul says she expects to seek an increase to the roughly $4 billion spent in the fiscal year that ended in March.
– Seeking customers among African governments will allow Paramount and Aerosud to sidestep some competition from Western arms contractors, who largely steer clear of the smaller African markets.
"We have adapted," says Shane George, an export manager at the state-owned Armaments Corporation of South Africa Ltd., which is in charge of purchasing for the government and for selling surplus government arms abroad.
– Paramount started by outfitting peacekeeping missions in Africa. In 2005 the company joined with Aerosud to refurbish and service fleets of Dassault Aviation SA’s Mirage III and F-1 jets for Gabon and Republic of Congo. In 2008, Paramount bought a 19% stake in Aerosud. Work on the Ahrlac began a year later.
Paramount’s Mr. Ichikowitz has also persuaded a group of émigrés to return and work for him. "We’ve made this as much a South African project as possible," Mr. Ichikowitz says. Designing vehicles and aircraft from scratch, he says, helped ensure that "the remaining skill and expertise we had on the continent wasn’t eroded."