Denel using AAD to show high tech manufacturing ability

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State-owned defence industry group is using this week’s Aerospace Africa and Defence (AAD) exhibition to reconfirm its continental leadership in the high-tech aerospace and defence markets.

It also plans to expand the range of logistic support and cam management services it has available to international peacekeeping forces deployed in Africa.
“We see this as a strong area for future growth. It also fits into the broader Denel objective of diversifying the company’s activities and using the shared experience of our various divisions to provide holistic solutions,” said Zwelakhe Ntshepe, Denel Group chief executive business development.

The decision comes on the heels of successful interventions by Denel Mechem in Somalia where life support systems provided by Denel Mechem keep a number of UN agencies clean and fed. They include UNOPS, responsible for infrastructure, peace building and mine action; UNOSA (logistic support) and the UN Development Programme responsible for co-ordinating rural development and poverty reduction.

Services provided range from facility management, catering and laundry to trauma medicine and training driver’s for mine-protected vehicles.

Denel chief executive Riaz Saloojee said there was a resurgent interest in the company’s products and services spurred by, among others, the performance of the South African designed and built Rooivalk combat support helicopter in peacekeeping operations.

He sees Denel’s participation in AAD as part of the State-owned group’s objectives of accelerating transformation of the local defence industry by way of its efforts to bring black, youth and women-owned companies into the manufacturing mainstream.

Denel’s primary mandate is to provide the South African defence and security sectors with world-class and cost effective products and services. “But it has gone further and the group is developing into a high-tech manufacturing powerhouse,” Saloojee said.