the first South African manned aircraft since Denel Rooivalk

South African company Aerosud and Paramount Group have jointly created a new light attack aircraft.

It has been called "the first South African manned aircraft since Denel Rooivalk" - the aircraft is made up
of more than 6,000 different parts, of which 98% are local components, making it the first fully African
aircraft.

AHRLAC (Advanced Highperformance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft)

is a state-of-the-art high-performance reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft.

The company has designed aircraft for several types of payload combination missions, including
advanced infrared instruments, synthetic aperture radar, communications, intelligence and electronic
intelligence, all integrated with advanced avionics.

Serves to complete the task of reconnaissance, patrol, surveillance, counter-insurgency and attacks on
targets on the ground.

Designed and built in South Africa, this aircraft fully meets one of the main threats of the 21st century.

This aircraft is not a large-scale war, but local conflict and anti-terrorist operations, where modern
warplanes are often redundant and too expensive, and the operations and losses are very painful for the
military budget and the prestige of the armed forces.

The global war against "international terrorism" that began in the 21st century has significantly fueled
interest in light "anti-insurgency" attack aircraft, including propeller-driven attack aircraft, whose golden
age, it seems, will forever remain in the skies over over the sky. World War II battlefield.

Manufacturers immediately responded to the emerging interest and began work on adapting existing
training models, light transport and even agricultural aircraft for attack purposes.
At the same time, the development of aircraft designers from South Africa can be safely attributed to
the most interesting engines of this type. The AHRLAC reconnaissance and light attack aircraft, which has
started a pilot program, could carve a niche in the global market.

The aircraft is intended for use in a number of fields, including ensuring the country's internal security,
maritime patrol, border control, disaster management and environmental protection.

In addition, the engine can easily replace light attack helicopters, including the Boeing AH-6, in various
military missions. In addition, AHRLAC can be used for air escort of large transport aircraft.

Although the AHRLAC aircraft are unmanned, they are much smaller than conventional military aircraft
and only close to modern UAVs.

Its small size gives this engine a number of advantages in terms of speed and maneuverability, but at the
same time its carrying capacity decreases.

This aircraft was first introduced to the public in 2011. And then, and is now positioned as a
reconnaissance and light attack aircraft.

In the design of the South African aircraft, a number of quite original solutions for military aircraft were
used. So, the AHRLAC has a forked tail and a special booster screw, which is located in the tail section of
the fuselage.

In fact, the AHRLAC can be associated with the aircraft that is now gaining popularity from the concept
of "manned UAV."

Such machines are designed to solve a very wide range of tasks: reconnaissance, patrol of territories,
attacking ground targets during counter-insurgency operations.

The concept is based on the design and construction of a light attack aircraft, the operating costs of
which will be comparable to the operating costs of a mid-range UAV.
At the same time, the patrol time of the device in the air and the surveillance, reconnaissance and
remote data transmission equipment installed in it will not lose or even exceed that of the drone.

For all counter-insurgency or anti-terrorist aircraft that have been created recently, a characteristic
feature is the installation of complete search and reconnaissance, navigation and communications
equipment on it.

allows the use of aircraft at any time of the day or night, as well as online broadcasting of surveillance
received from surveillance camera video images.

In the area of means to defeat targets, the emphasis is on the use of high-precision guided systems.

specification.

The aircraft is a light metal twin-high-wing aircraft with a length of 10.5 m and a wingspan of 12 m, with
a take-off weight of up to 3800 kg,

equipped with a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-66 turboprop engine rated at HP950.

The load is placed on external slings on the six underwing nodes of the main wing, up to a total of 20,
and includes guided and non-directed missiles, bombs.

At full takeoff weight, the aircraft must have a take-off distance of approximately 550 m, a maximum
flight speed of 550 km/h, a service ceiling of 9.5 km, a flight range with a full fuel supply of 2,100 km,
and two PTBs.
can be suspended. The flight duration reaches 7.5 - 10 hours, the manufacturer plans to equip the
aircraft with a built-in 20 mm F2 cannon.

Payload (excluding fuel and crew) is approximately 1,750 lb (787 kg). By agreement with the customer,
the vehicle can be additionally equipped with an onboard self-defense system and a Martin Baker Mk 16
ejection seat.

The attack aircraft was first shown to the general public on 27 September 2011.

The first flight of the first prototype (ZU-XDM) took place on August 13, 2014.

A light fighter aircraft takes off from Wunderboom Airport, located near Pretoria (the capital of South
Africa). The company is currently building a second prototype of the AHRLAC, dubbed the Advanced
Demonstrator (ADM), which must be equipped with special weapons and equipment, as well as the
Martin Baker Mk 17 ejection seat.

So far, nothing is known about the customer of the AHRLAC aircraft, the aircraft has just started a series
of tests. It is too early to talk about the start of serial production of a new item, but there is already
information that the cost of one copy of AHRLAC is about 10 million US dollars. According to the
company's estimates, in terms of mass production of AHRLAC, its annual sales will reach four billion rand
- about 500 million dollars.