Denel, the state-owned armaments development and manufacturing company, has joined forces with GEW Technologies to collaborate on electronic warfare (EW) programmes.
EW is warfare conducted through the electromagnetic spectrum and covers a wide variety of areas, such as snooping on digital communications, detecting enemy emissions, jamming communications, and counter-measures such as actively disrupting missiles, radar signals and sensors, among others.
EW enthusiast Christo Cloete explains: "EW is all about control of the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS). The EMS is one of the most complex and agile environments to operate in, and requires continued research and development as well as education on all levels. The more people are exposed to the potential and capabilities of EW, the more the country can benefit from it."
In December 2014, Denel launched its Denel Integrated Systems and Maritime division (DISM), which seeks to expand the range of products and services offered to the South African defence and security sectors.
DISM was also set up to enable Denel to meet the recommendations of the 2014 Defence Review, which calls for the company to develop sovereign capabilities in strategic areas such as command-and-control and EW. Sovereign capability means technologies must be developed under the control of South African companies.
DISM will manage the implementation of the collaboration and drive the EW programmes.
"The fact that the Defence Review highlighted EW as a sovereign capability emphasises the strategic importance of EW. For the EW community in South Africa this is a good thing because declining budgets and the loss of expertise in the military, institutes and industry has moved SA away from the position of a world leader in the field, and this is an opportunity to regain the capability," says Christo Cloete, president of the Aardvark Roost, the local Association of Old Crows (AOC) chapter.
The AOC is an international professional EW organisation, with members in 47 countries.
"Since the Angola conflict era where there was a lot of cooperation and synergy, local defence industries competed for the dwindling funding pool and turned their focus to the international market in order to survive. This seems to be the first step back to local collaboration, which will definitely benefit the SANDF [South African National Defence Force]," adds Cloete.
The new alliance will significantly strengthen South Africa's capabilities in an area that has become a primary feature of modern defence systems, says Denel Group CEO Riaz Saloojee.
GEW Technologies has more than 40 years of experience in the design and production of sophisticated communication monitoring, counter-measures and integrated security systems. The company is a subsidiary of Airbus Defence and Space, which is part of the European Airbus group.
South Africa has a long history of producing and exporting EW technology and, according to the 2014 National Conventional Arms Control Committee annual report, over R50 million of the R2.98 billion worth of weapons and equipment last year were related to EW.
EW exports went to defence forces all over the world, including India, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Oman, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, South Korea, the Netherlands, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Germany, Peru, and Greece.
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