Press Releases

Paramount participates in Exercise Golfinho

October 20, 2009

The Paramount Group participated in Exercise Golfinho at the SANDF Combat Traning Centre, Lohatla in the Eastern Cape as an Exhibitor during September 2009.

The group presented its Nemo Land Forces range of Armoured and Mine Protected Vehicles, the Matador, Marauder and Maverick.

The aim of the exercise was to prepare the Southern African Development Community Standby Brigade (SADBRIG) for multidimensional Peace Support Operations in line with the African Union Standby Force.

The exercises objectives were to test the interoperability and compatibility of the mission components - military, police and civilians; to exercise inter-agency liaison between international organisations, governments and NGOs; to practice command and staff liaison in multinational HQs; to test capabilities in information gathering; to exercise the provision of assistance in humanitarian relief operations; to exercise commanders and staff in media handling and to exercise mission sustenance procedures.

The African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) roadmap requires regional brigades to be ready to implement Scenario 6 of the Conflict and Missions Scenarios.

The six scenarios are as follows:  
Scenario 1. AU/Regional military advice to a political mission.  
Scenario 2. AU/Regional observer mission co-deployed with UN mission.  
Scenario 3. Stand-alone AU/Regional observer mission.  
Scenario 4. AU/Regional peacekeeping force (PKF) for Chapter VI and preventive deployment missions.  
Scenario 5. AU PKF for complex multidimensional PK mission-low level spoilers (a feature of many current conflicts).  
Scenario 6. AU intervention for example in genocide situations where the international community does not act promptly. 

The roadmap makes further provision for the ASF to build capacity according to a timeline to be able to implement any of the six scenarios, and specifically Scenario 6, by 2010. The road map has set out a phased plan for implementation as follows:

Phase 1 completed by 30 June 2006:

AU: Expanded planning elements for management of political mission and co-deployed AU observer mission, deployable within 30 days (Scenarios 1 & 2). Establish military observers and civilian police standby rosters
Regions: Planning elements, brigade headquarters, regional standby arrangements; Chapter VI operation and preventive deployment, deployable within 30 days (Scenario 4)

Phase 2 completed by 30 June 2010:
AU: Ability to manage complex missions. Development of civilian roster

Regions: Deployment of mission HQ for Chapter VI and preventive deployment within 30 days

The regional brigades planned and held various exercises during 2009 in anticipation of the AU exercise AMANI AFRICA planned for 2010, which will test the readiness of the five brigades to implement the Conflict and Missions Scenarios. Exercise GOLFINHO was to establish SADBRIGs readiness for June 2010, but also to be able to participate in exercise AMANI AFRICA

Content extracted from an article by: Henri Boshoff (Ocnus.net) 13 October 2009

For photos of the event click on: Exercise Golfinho