AHRLAC (South Africa)

lastdingo

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Found this on Financial Times Germany, and am astonished that a search for "AHRLAC" yielded nothing here.

I found a website.

The project is otherwise completely unknown to me.

20110928143732.228495807-5B2-5D.500x333.jpg


 
Here's a Flightglobal article on it: http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/picture-south-african-firms-unveil-indigenous-light-attack-aircraft-362595/

South Africa's Aerosud and Paramount Group have unveiled a new aircraft intended to satisfy a variety of civilian and military requirements, up to flying light-attack and counter-insurgency missions.

Revealed at an Aerosud site on the Centurion Aerospace Village near Pretoria on 27 September, the advanced high-performance reconnaissance light aircraft (AHRLAC) is a short take-off and landing (STOL) platform with a two-person crew, 7-10h endurance and a maximum payload of 800kg (1,760lb).

Powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 pusher engine, the high-wing design is intended to perform duties ranging from intelligence and surveillance tasks to armed patrol and counter-insurgency operations.

getasset.aspx

[IMAGE CREDIT: Flightglobal/ Aerosud]​

388696front_page_header_desert_dark_wide.jpg

[IMAGE CREDIT: AHRLAC website]​
 
Lauge said:
lastdingo said:
Found this on Financial Times Germany, and am astonished that a search for "AHRLAC" yielded nothing here.

I found a website.

The project is otherwise completely unknown to me.
20110928143732.228495807-5B2-5D.500x333.jpg



If I decide to buy one, will the pilots in the picture be included in the delivery?

Regards & all,

Thomas L. Nielsen
Luxembourg
I see a James Bond movie prop (pun intended).
 

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Anther picture to AHRLAC.
 

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Published on Aug 15, 2014

Paramount Group, Africa’s largest privately-owned defence and aerospace company, reached a momentous occasion today with the first public flight of its Advanced High-Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft (AHRLAC), at the Wonderboom Airport in Pretoria. AHRLAC is the first military fixed wing aircraft to be fully designed, tested and developed in Africa.

View: http://youtu.be/Z0CYD53Qc7A
 
Cool. A very interesting program, and an alternative to trainer-derived aircraft.
 
From the article:
Paramount developed the aircraft because one of its core businesses is providing support to developing-nation forces, including peacekeepers on international missions, and it saw a need for an affordable way to provide armed overwatch. Earlier, the company saw a similar need for low-cost but effective armored vehicles and has established a successful multi-national business with its original designs. Paramount boosted its integration skills last year by acquiring the Advanced Technology and Engineering group, renowned for the amazing feat of producing an upgraded version of the Mil Mi-24 that is uglier than the original.
 
I thought that this was interesting:

Ahrlac is aimed -- in part -- at a sector owned by the Embraer Super Tucano and contested by the Textron Beech AT-6B. It is slightly smaller and lower-powered than either -- but, with no trainer DNA, it is completely different in shape and better adapted to the mission. First of all, the twin-boom, shoulder-wing, pusher-prop layout means that the wing and engine are no longer between the crew and the ground operations which the aircraft is intended to support -- the view is helicopter-like. Second, the configuration allows for a fuselage-mounted medium-caliber gun and a large payload bay, close to the center of gravity, which Paramount has designed to accept interchangeable pallets. (Note, by the way, that the landing gear is retractable: it was left extended for the first flight.)

Paramount Group, the manufacturer of AHRLAC, also retrofits the Mil Mi-24 "Hind" into the "SuperHind."
 
Maybe it's already stated somewhere and I just missed it, but this aircraft seems to
lend itself for a conversion into an unmanned variant, "adding even more flexibility and
cost savings especially for smaller airforces due to standardisation". ;)
 
The problem with a UAV conversion is that it would fall smack in the middle of a sector that's already well supplied with Predator XP, Heron/Super Heron, Hermes 900, Falcos and what-have-you.
 
Jemiba said:
Maybe it's already stated somewhere and I just missed it, but this aircraft seems to
lend itself for a conversion into an unmanned variant, "adding even more flexibility and
cost savings especially for smaller airforces due to standardisation". ;)

Are tele-operated unmanned systems, like UAVs, less costly than manned systems?
 
Jury's out on that one. The experience of the Border Patrol is that Caravans with EO balls were cheaper by the hour than Predator Bs, IIRC. It may not be very clear cut, however, because you have to look at all the components of the system.
 
Triton said:
Jemiba said:
Maybe it's already stated somewhere and I just missed it, but this aircraft seems to
lend itself for a conversion into an unmanned variant, "adding even more flexibility and
cost savings especially for smaller airforces due to standardisation". ;)

Are tele-operated unmanned systems, like UAVs, less costly than manned systems?

One reason that UAV have not swept everything is their appalling accident rate; far worse than manned platforms.
 
yasotay said:
One reason that UAV have not swept everything is their appalling accident rate; far worse than manned platforms.

Slightly OT, but here it would be interesting to get to know the reasons for those accidents.
Maybe it often was just a break of the UAV-operator connection and the UAV not having a
sufficient level of authonomy ? There are claims, that a least for "standard flights" (take-off,
cruise and landing) already with nowadays systems the accident rate could be lower, than for
manned systems. It would just be needed to remove the man from the loop ! Those are claims
made by convinced UAV proponents, of course, but AFAIK one of the main reasons for flight
accidents still is human failure.
 
I think many people underestimate the enormous cost of a functioning mid-level UAV system including uplink/downlink communications, ground control and monitoring installations, etc. I am not talking about a backpack plane or a quad copter, but something with significant endurance and capability.

I attended an event while some law enforcement training was going on at the same facility. It was tactical training outdoors and the training was being filmed from a UAV for after-action review. I don't remember the excact UAV, but the system involved three electric motorgliders with gimballed cameras, extra batteries and chargers, a launcher and a ground station with lots of screens, uplink/downlink, recorders, etc. When I asked the cost, it was about $1.5 million.

Compared to a helicopter, that sounds reasonable, but what they were doing could have been done from a manned light aircraft (fixed wing, gyroplane, even powered parachute) for a fraction of the cost. Even in the USA, $1.5 million dollars would pay for a couple of light aircraft, say two high-end microlights or gyroplanes equipped with camera balls, screens and radios, training for officers/agents as observers and stipends for contract pilots to fly them as well as fuel and other expense for a couple of years. In a developing country where personnel costs are less, make that three or four years.

Sometimes these UAV solutions seem like the apocryphal story of the inventor who created an ingenious machine to extract screws straight of wood because no one told him it helped to turn them. Or the very real story of NASA spending of ridiculous amounts of money to develop the "space pen" that would write in zero gravity, underwater, upside-down etc. while Soviet cosmonauts just used pencils.

I do think that there may be a role for the AHRLAC as a lower-cost substitute for police helicopters or even as an armed border patrol or coast guard aircraft against smugglers, pirates, etc. Man-in-the-loop solutions still make a lot of sense for organizations that do not have access to fabulous military budgets.
 
TomS said:
Just a tangent, but the NASA pen vs Russian pencil story is not "very real" at all. In fact, it's a total fiction.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-nasa-spen/


I've wheeled that one out a few times at dinner parties when some hispter decides to deride America and the aviation industry. Always priceless when you get to the part about how the second people to buy the pens after NASA was the Soviet space program.
 
A great many UAV issues arise from dependence on the datalink for imagery, situational awareness and control. UAVs are designed in theory to do something sensible if they lose the link, but in practice this often does not work (see the Fire Scout that had an episode in 2010 and started heading towards Washington, and the ensuing hilarity). This contributes to the accident rate, which is a painful issue for a budget-strapped operator once you get to multi-sensor systems.


Another link limitation is that line-of-sight to a UAV is short even at 20,000 feet - and it takes a big EO sensor to see detail from that height. And what about overcast? Result: you either need airborne relay or satcoms. The former is expensive and the latter restricts the mobility of your GCS, and may be problematical in difficult terrain.



UAVs don't greatly reduce crewing costs and may increase them if you need both a flight crew and launch and recovery crew. They do have an advantage in vehicle endurance, but not every mission requires 24/7 coverage.


Another issue: the Mk1 eyeball, with a trained brain behind it, is pretty good at detecting movement and anomaly (glint, dust, something manmade in a natural environment) over a wide area. SAR and GMTI can both help, but the traditional EO ball alone is very limited in its ability to search a wide area.


Meanwhile, I can now get very capable displays, sensors and sensor fusion on a small aircraft (see the various Diamond MPP options), while the guided 70 mm opens up a whole range of weapon options.
 
Triton said:
I thought that this was interesting:

Ahrlac is aimed -- in part -- at a sector owned by the Embraer Super Tucano and contested by the Textron Beech AT-6B. It is slightly smaller and lower-powered than either -- but, with no trainer DNA, it is completely different in shape and better adapted to the mission. First of all, the twin-boom, shoulder-wing, pusher-prop layout means that the wing and engine are no longer between the crew and the ground operations which the aircraft is intended to support -- the view is helicopter-like. Second, the configuration allows for a fuselage-mounted medium-caliber gun and a large payload bay, close to the center of gravity, which Paramount has designed to accept interchangeable pallets. (Note, by the way, that the landing gear is retractable: it was left extended for the first flight.)

Paramount Group, the manufacturer of AHRLAC, also retrofits the Mil Mi-24 "Hind" into the "SuperHind."

Also, the landing gear/tyres look far better suited for rough strip operation, as does the engine air intake location perhaps for sustained dirt field operation over trainer types?
 
I happen to be working down at the big Africa Aerospace and Defense 2014 airshow and exhibition near Pretoria, SA this week. (Location is SAAF Waterkloof Air Base.) A fairly long way from home in Fort Worth, TX.... :)

I also happened to be out on the ramp when the ARHLAC aircraft was being towed to its static display area, respendent in its striking new digital camo paint scheme.

The second picture is of a large scale model of the ARHLAC (looked to be 1/5-1/4 scale or so) that was located in the Paramount Group indoor exhibit area. The model on display implies retractable landing gear, whereas the gear, on the prototype at least, appears to be fixed.
 

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Here are a couple of non front/non front quarter view photos.
Note the red tail supports that indicate the ARHLAC must want to sit tail down without pilot or fuel payload weight in place in the aircraft.....
 

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The latest official brochure.
 

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Boeing to supply mission systems for AHRLAC . (And it has a new name that Americans can stumble over.)

http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=42652:boeing-to-supply-mission-systems-for-ahrlac&catid=35:Aerospace&Itemid=107

Boeing will supply mission systems for the military version of Paramount’s AHRLAC multi-role aircraft, which has been rebranded the Mwari.

Boeing on Tuesday said it will develop an integrated mission system for the aircraft enabling intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and light strike missions for the AHRLAC safety and security and military variants known as Mwari.

Speaking from the Global Aerospace Summit in Abu Dhabi, Jeffrey Johnson, Vice President, Boeing Military Aircraft, Business Development of Boeing Defense, Space & Security said: “Working with Paramount, we’ll not only bring a flexible, persistent and affordable aircraft to the international market, but we’ll also be developing world-class technology in Africa.”

Johnson said that Boeing has examined the aircraft extensively and believe they have found an opportunity to expand into a market untouched by their company. Johnson added that Boeing will actively market the aircraft with Paramount Group in the international market.

"Boeing has a worldwide footprint in parts and field services and logistics that we hope we can utilize too in our portfolio of products from very high-end costly fighters all the way down to very cost effective products. This now helps us with access to a market that we have never been involved in," Johnson said.

The military version of the Advanced High-performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft (AHRLAC) is now known as the Mwari, but the unarmed version remains the AHRLAC. The Mwari name was previously used by a Paramount unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which will now be renamed.

“The multi-role aircraft will become a significant player in the global aerospace industry,” Ivor Ichikowitz, the executive chairman of Paramount Group as quoted by the UAE’s The National as saying on Sunday. “We believe in the commercial success of the aircraft and its impact on the future of the African aerospace industry by boosting advanced technologies, job creation and skills development.”

Boeing and Paramount first announced cooperation in 2014, which was cemented with a signing ceremony at the Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD) show in September that year. The two companies revealed they would cooperate in areas such as unmanned aerial vehicles, robotics and helicopters.

At the time, Paramount Group Executive Chairman Ivor Ichikowitz said that, “There will be specific collaboration in the UAV space, we are looking at collaboration in the robotics space and collaboration in the rotor wing space, we’re looking at collaboration on their platforms and our mission systems. There are lots of possibilities. There are opportunities in the naval space, there are opportunities to support US Africom activities in Africa.”
 
The project seems to have been resurrected after it was stuck in a legal dispute for a long time.

Ahrlac advances as business rescue nears completion

Production of Ahrlac aircraft at the factory at Wonderboom airport is proceeding apace as Paramount nears completion of the programme’s business rescue plans.

The state-of-the-art factory at Wonderboom has been operational for several months under Paramount’s stewardship, with manufacturing being ramped up to ensure the timeous delivery of aircraft to customers around the world, Paramount said on 18 August. Approximately 85% of the original staff of the Aerospace Development Corporation (ADC) have been retained.

The Ahrlac was conceived by Aerosud and developed with Paramount funding through the joint venture Aerospace Development Corporation. However, a dispute between Paramount and the Aerospace Development Corporation saw the programme enter business rescue in February 2019. In October 2019 a business rescue plan for the Ahrlac was adopted, which led to the reopening of the factory and production resuming, now under the stewardship of Paramount Aerospace Industries, part of the Paramount Aerospace and Technology Group.

Under the October 2019 plan, Paramount Aerospace Industries acquired the businesses of ADC and its subsidiaries (Aerosud Innovation Centre, ADC Surveillance and Ahrlac Pty Ltd).

“Paramount has provided and facilitated significant capital as part of these business rescue processes in the form of both post commencement funding, working capital, capital investment and the assumption of liabilities and loan repayments, in accordance with the provisions of the respective plans. Further capital will be injected into the business over the coming months to support both marketing initiatives and manufacturing,” Paramount said.

Alison Crooks, CEO of Paramount Industrial Holdings stated: “This is great news for the future of the aircraft, for Paramount, for the South African Aerospace industry, as well as for the global aircraft market. Paramount’s decision, more than a decade ago, to fund the development of the Ahrlac aircraft was a matter of national pride and came at a time when the local aerospace industry was searching for a project that would invigorate the sector. Our passion for the country and for innovation is reflected in the direct investment of almost R1 billion into the project. We are grateful that this strategic programme is now secured and that we can focus on a brighter future.”

Crooks added: “We are very excited about our new management team, made up of leading experts in aircraft engineering, industrialisation and production, who are focusing on the manufacturing of the aircraft and its delivery to customers. We have been encouraged by the global interest in the aircraft and we look forward to making further new customer announcements in the near future. We would like to thank all of our employees who have stood by us and have demonstrated that the resilience, innovative spirit and can-do mentality of South Africans is as strong as ever.”

Paramount said the Ahrlac addresses a key global security requirement by performing missions that previously required several different aircraft. It integrates designs from helicopters, surveillance platforms and reconnaissance aircraft, with the ability to carry multiple systems, such as surveillance radar and electronic systems. A modular mission pod underneath the aircraft can be quickly and easily changed according to the mission, setting the Ahrlac apart from competitors. Robust landing gear ensures operations from rough terrain.

The Mwari is the militarised version and is designed to incorporate advanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, and close air support (CAS) and weapons systems and have operating costs of less than $1 000 an hour, making it cheaper than helicopters and most other fixed wing competitors. Weapons options include guided munitions, guided rockets, air-to-ground missiles and a cannon pod.

Paramount said that in keeping with its portable production model, the aircraft could, depending on customer requirements, also be exported in kit format for final assembly in customer countries.


Ahrlac_assembly_line_Paramount.jpg
 
This:

"Production of Ahrlac aircraft at the factory at Wonderboom airport is proceeding apace as Paramount nears completion of the programme’s business rescue plans.

The state-of-the-art factory at Wonderboom has been operational for several months under Paramount’s stewardship, with manufacturing being ramped up to ensure the timeous delivery of aircraft to customers around the world"

implies they have sales. I haven't heard about any sales of Ahrlac, has anyone else?
 
This:

"Production of Ahrlac aircraft at the factory at Wonderboom airport is proceeding apace as Paramount nears completion of the programme’s business rescue plans.

The state-of-the-art factory at Wonderboom has been operational for several months under Paramount’s stewardship, with manufacturing being ramped up to ensure the timeous delivery of aircraft to customers around the world"

implies they have sales. I haven't heard about any sales of Ahrlac, has anyone else?

Flight Global has some hints:


Ivor Ichikowitz, founder and executive chairman of Paramount, says the newly branded Paramount Aerospace Industries has “taken orders” for the AHRLAC – which is branded the Mwari in a militarised configuration – and is “preparing for deliveries”. A new factory in Wonderboom, near Pretoria, is “fully operational”.

Ichikowitz will not name customers. ADC had announced in early 2018 it was close to its first delivery to an unnamed buyer, but Ichikowitz says production was put on hold by the restructuring.
 
Against the background of the use of drones in Karabakh, Libya and Syria, AHRLAC, as a military machine, looks already obsolete and redundant. All the same, two corpses, from one side, it will be a lot.
 
Moreover the cockpit sidewalls doesn't look really reassuring whith their flatness and alinium sheet thickness.
Apparent shoulder space seems however to leave room for sidewall Kevlar pads.
 
Last edited:
Against the background of the use of drones in Karabakh, Libya and Syria, AHRLAC, as a military machine, looks already obsolete and redundant. All the same, two corpses, from one side, it will be a lot.
Not every mission can be solved by throwing a drone at it. There is rather too much of an obsession at the moment in thinking drones are the answer to every mission requirement.
 
Moreover the cockpit sidewalls doesn't look really reassuring whith their flatness and alinium sheet thickness.
Apparent shoulder space seems however to leave room for sidewall Kevlar pads.

It has been stated that armour is modular and configurable depending entirely on the mission.
The entire point of the AHRLAC design is the rapid modularity and reconfigurability of the aircraft, so as to be more versatile than current UAV's and ground attack aircraft.
 

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