In the News
First made-in-Africa plane will boost defence industry
February 2, 2012
Having found a niche in producing mine-proff armoured vehicles and having made the space its own, South African defence and aerospace company Paramount is spreading its wings, both figuratively and literally. It is about to debut its first all-South African aircraft and is unveiling ambitious plans to set up operations throughout continental Africa. Tom Nevin went to meet the company's chairman.
Paramount's activities are considerably wide - it operates in the international peacekeeping, defence and internal security industries and counts amongst its global customers governments and government agencies.
"Success breeds success," contends Ivor Ichikowitz, chairman of South Africa's Paramount Group, referring to the phenomenal growth, since its inception in 1994, of the company's production mainstay, platforms for troop carriers. The platforms are basic framework of the armoured body of the armoured troop carriers onto which operating systems are applied.
"When we realised we could do this in the land forces environment, the next big advance on the global peacekeeping landscape was in the air force. We became aware that inn South Africa a huge capability had arisen in the sanctions years. It was an opportunity ready for harvesting so we bought a strategic stake in the highly-successful Aerosud Aviation company and we started rebuilding the defence aerospace industry in this country".
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