LONDON—Paramount is seeking additional production capacity for its Mwari multimission aircraft as the company eyes a growing, potentially multibillion-dollar market for such platforms.
The United Arab Emirates-based company has already secured sales of the distinctive single-engine, twin-boom intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and close air support aircraft to Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo and other undisclosed customers. But it wants to build production capacity nearer to emerging markets, Ivor Ichikowitz, Paramount’s founder, told Aerospace DAILY at the Defense Security Equipment International (DSEI) exhibition held here Sept. 12-15.
He wants to use the company’s portable production process, previously applied to its armored vehicles and loitering munitions, to enable larger production capacity for the aircraft.
“We have sold every available slot for the next three years and now we are looking at where the next Mwari factory is going to be located,” Ichikowitz said.
“We have made this aircraft for portable production. It creates a sustainable security solution for any nation, so they are no longer reliant on foreign powers,” added Steve Griessel, Paramount’s Global CEO.
The company previously pitched for a U.S. requirement under the product name of Bronco II to meet U.S. Special Operations Command’s Armed Overwatch requirement.
Mwari production is currently focused on South Africa. Ichikowitz calls keeping the aerospace industry alive in South Africa a “personal mission,” but he has no wish to increase production there.
Ichikowitz argues that the aircraft has no real competitor. “It is the only aircraft that we’re aware of in the world that has ever been designed with one purpose in mind, and that is to be infinitely reconfigurable.”
Use of open-source architectures on the aircraft means that new sensor payloads can be quickly integrated, he says.
“There is no other platform in the world right now, not manned or unmanned, that can be a true find, fix and finish solution in one aircraft at the same time,” Ichikowitz says.
Paramount is due to begin weapons testing and certification on the Mwari in late 2023, but company officials say weaponry details are not yet being disclosed.
“This is now a mature platform. We are in the field where we’re living with real harsh environments, harsh conditions, and very little modification or design changes have been required in terms of service and customer operational requirements,” Ichikowitz says.
