The symposium, which has been organised by the SA Navy this year, will put Denel's contribution to South Africa's air defence capabilities under the spotlight.
The group CEO of Denel, Riaz Saloojee, says air defence is a market in which Denel has already provided the SANDF with a turnkey ground-based system (GBADS), which is being extended into the maritime environment. "Not only is Denel expanding our proven expertise in systems engineering and command-and-control into the maritime environment, we are also growing our contribution in the C4I sector of the defence environment - namely, command, control, communications, computers and intelligence."
Saloojee says this is part of Denel's strategy to grow its revenue through the penetration of new markets and finding new business opportunities for existing core-systems capabilities. "Denel has a sterling record for the delivery of quality products, systems and support services in the aerospace and landward defence sectors." Maritime security is of growing importance for South Africa and Africa in general, with increasing demands to counter the growth of piracy in southern waters and protect the marine resources along the 2,500km long coastline.
The SA Navy's four Valour Class Frigates are armed with Denel's Umkhonto missiles which will be on display at SAJADS 2013. The missiles are launched vertically and are specially designed to provide all-round defence against simultaneous air attacks from multiple combat aircrafts - both fixed wing and helicopters - as well as incoming missiles. Denel has identified a number of niche focus areas in which it has proven systems-level experience and can strengthen the reach of the existing maritime sector.
