(South Africa) The problem that every African country has faced when it comes to buying equipment for their air forces is that everything has to be bought from abroad, then there's the service charge for keeping such kit in the air. Take for example South Africa. It bought 26 SAAG Gripen Fighter jets in 2005. Yet currently it has 12 of the jets in deep storage because they can't afford to fly them, not only that but the fighter pilots assigned to fly them train instead on Hawk trainer jets, a totally different jet altogether. That story can be found all over Africa. What Africa needs is a simple home made aircraft which is effective, cheap to run and, hopefully, home made.
Well, it seems that South Africa has come up with just a craft.
Paramount Group and Aerosud have come up with the Advanced High-performance Reconnaissance Light Attack, or AHRLAC. Designed from the start to be easily reconfigurable, in just a few hours in field conditions, this is largely helped by the huge utility pod under its belly which can accommodate interchangeable payloads such as radars, cannons, additional fuel tanks, cargo and additional optronics sensors. It’s this capability that lets the AHRLAC carry out missions that usually requires separately configured aircraft to perform roles like patrol and reconnaissance, training and cargo carriage and light attack. It also makes the aircraft useful for a number of civilian missions like border patrol.
A number of air forces have expressed interest in the aircraft and are in talks with Paramount.
A cheap, simple but hopefully effective local aircraft could go a long way into allowing African countries to run an air force within budget.
Well, it seems that South Africa has come up with just a craft.
Paramount Group and Aerosud have come up with the Advanced High-performance Reconnaissance Light Attack, or AHRLAC. Designed from the start to be easily reconfigurable, in just a few hours in field conditions, this is largely helped by the huge utility pod under its belly which can accommodate interchangeable payloads such as radars, cannons, additional fuel tanks, cargo and additional optronics sensors. It’s this capability that lets the AHRLAC carry out missions that usually requires separately configured aircraft to perform roles like patrol and reconnaissance, training and cargo carriage and light attack. It also makes the aircraft useful for a number of civilian missions like border patrol.
A number of air forces have expressed interest in the aircraft and are in talks with Paramount.
A cheap, simple but hopefully effective local aircraft could go a long way into allowing African countries to run an air force within budget.
