Paramount Aerospace Industries (PAI) announced additional customer deliveries of its Mwari ISR/light strike aircraft at the DSEI 2023 exhibition on 13 September.
The company announced that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has ordered several Mwari platforms, joining launch customer Mozambique, where the aircraft is already operational and accrued over 70 flight hours on ISR missions.
Nine Mwari aircraft have now been sold: three to Mozambique and six to the DRC. Speaking to ESD at DSEI 2023 on 14 September, Paramount Global CEO Steve Griessel said the latest orders mean that Mwari production is effectively sold out over the next couple of years. However, he added that, as well as in Africa, the company continues to talk to potential customers in Europe, the Middle East and the United States about the Mwari’s utility in addressing asymmetric threats, noting that these potential clients were “not necessarily air forces, but covert forces, border forces etc”.
PAI also announced at DSEI 2023 that further weapons integration, testing and certification are expected to commence on the Mwari towards late 2023/early 2024 and that additional integration of modern command, control and communications base systems architecture will enhance the Mwari’s ability to serve as a critical link between aircraft, ground forces and forward-operating bases (FOBs). Advanced technologies are being leveraged to transmit next-level intelligence and real-time analysis, the company said, ensuring that the Mwari can embody the ability to ‘find, fix, finish, exploit, analyse and disseminate (F3EAD)’.
Derived as an armed version of the Advanced High Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft (AHRLAC) developed by Paramount Group and Aerosud, the Mwari has a twin-boom pusher propeller design with a forward-swept high wing and carries a crew of two. With a maximum take-off weight of 4,500 kg, the Mwari has a maximum payload of 800 kg with a full fuel load. Depending on the mission, it can carry a variety of sensors and weapons, with the latter options including 20 mm podded cannons, 70 mm guided rockets, Mk 81- and Mk 82-based guided bombs and Denel Mokopa anti-tank missiles.
A key feature of the Mwari is its stated operating cost of USD 1,200 (EUR 1,122) per hour and very low logistics footprint, with Griessel noting, for example, that its crew can refuel the aircraft from a dirt strip using a jerry can.
The unique specifications of the Mwari aircraft’s manufacture and versatility in the ISR and Armed Overwatch arena make it ideally suited for these diverse environments, where the ability to address numerous types of missions, such as counter insurgency, border patrol, precision strike, reconnaissance, and surveillance.
On the first day of DSEI 2023 Paramount published industry intelligence it had commissioned revealing that the armed overwatch/ISR market is estimated to be worth USD 32.3 Bn over the next five years.
Paramount argues that its analysis means readiness against near-peer adversaries suggests fourth- and fifth-generation fighters will have very limited applicability to modern-day counter-insurgency operations.
This, the company suggests, makes the Mwari a particularly cost-effective solution that, given that it is digitally designed, can be produced anywhere in the world.
Griessel additionally noted that, unlike some of the more expensive air power solutions that countries like China and Russia persuade budget-poor nations to buy, which then fall out of service because the countries cannot afford to maintain the capability, the Mwaris “will fly for many years because these nations will be able to afford to fly them”.
Asked by ESD if unmanned aerial vehicle platforms are increasingly competing with a low-cost manned solution like the Mwari, Griessel replied, “We don’t complete with drones; we work in conjunction with those.” Furthermore, he added that in a few years the Mwari will be optionally manned.
PAI is a subsidiary to the wider Paramount Group, which was formed in South Africa in 1994 but is now headquartered in the United Arab Emirates.
Peter Felstead
