Paramount hails first orders for Mwari

South Africa-based Paramount Aerospace Industries announced on 21 September that it has sealed deals with multiple unnamed customers for its Mwari turboprop ISR and light attack aircraft.

A total of nine customisable Mwaris are on order, Paramount noted in a statement released during the opening day of the Africa Aerospace & Defence Expo.

It added that demand levels have enabled ‘full levels of production’ at its factory in Wonderboom near Pretoria.

Ivor Ichikowitz, founder of parent company Paramount Group, said that Mwari was ‘purposefully designed for the kind of asymmetrical warfare that modern military forces across the world are today being asked to conduct. The aircraft has a critical role to play in the connected battlefield, providing forces on the ground and in the air with a force multiplier competitive advantage’.

As previously reported by Shephard, the Interchangeable Mission Systems Bay aboard Mwari houses a suite of onboard situational awareness and ISR technologies such as an encrypted, high-bandwidth data link and multi-spectrum search and track sensors; long-range optical and radar surveillance systems; an SA7 CRM SATCOM link; AIS for ship identification; and real-time video.

Mwari can operate at up to 31,000ft altitude with a maximum cruise speed of 250kt and mission range of up to 550nmi when carrying ordnance, plus mission endurance of up to 6.5h.