A key priority for South Africa’s State-owned defence industrial group Denel is to develop its capabilities in what is known in defence jargon as C4ISTAR – command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance. “With regard to information warfare, surveillance, command and control – the whole C4ISTAR environment – what we’re doing in Denel today is to achieve this integrated capability, to enhance the combat power of our weapons systems,” stresses group CEO Riaz Saloojee. “This is a critical issue. It’s a passion of mine, to integrate these systems. That’s why we’ve created Denel Integrated Systems Solutions and Maritime. No other company in South Africa is doing this today.”

Modern C4ISTAR capabilities, composed of advanced sensor and other technological intelligence gathering systems (including those operating in cyberspace) as well as processing systems, overseen by skilled analytical personnel, linked together by modern secure military communications networks, allow headquarters to develop almost real-time (and often actually real time) pictures – and often they literally are pictures – of enemy operations and dispositions and to swiftly direct strike assets (often, but not always or necessarily, aircraft) to attack identified targets with precision-guided munitions (PGMs – guided missiles and “smart bombs”). Cybersecurity is an essential part of these networks.

This combination of C4ISTAR and PGMs has revolutionised modern warfare. A single fighter-bomber, cued by modern C4ISTAR and armed with modern PGMs, could, for example, destroy several targets in a single pass over the target area. Alternatively, a single target trying to hide in a confined residential area can be located and destroyed, with no civilian casualties. South Africa is currently rather strong in PGMs but weak in C4ISTAR as a whole – the country does have strength in certain niches within C4ISTAR, such as command and control, optronic sensors and unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), but on their own they are not enough.

“This is the next generation of technology we need to invest in and acquire, information warfare being critical in war and security environments,” he asserts. “Without this, we’ll leave ourselves very vulnerable to a whole range of threats.”

And some of these threats are not academic matters, but already live issues. “These are not in your traditional space,” he highlights. “These threats are in cyberspace, ICT [information and communication technology] space and in social media space – these are being used by individuals and organisations that don’t respect the values of our society.” Extremist groups, even on other continents, can and do use these modern technologies to proselytise and recruit globally.

“From a Denel perspective, we should be at the forefront of giving the State that [C4ISTAR and cyber defence] capability,” says Saloojee. The group is making progress. “There has been an exponential growth in terms of our capabilities and technologies.”

One new C4ISTAR asset that Denel has developed is the Seeker 400 UAV. At the recent media briefing on the group’s financial results for 2014/15, Saloojee reported that the development of this system had so far cost R160-million. “The Seeker 400 . . . takes us into another level of UAV capabilities,” he told the assembled journalists. “The Seeker 400 is a new generation UAV.” Production should start early next year.

The group has enjoyed a significant increase in its profitability over the past four years. In the financial year 2011/12, it had profits of R41-mil- lion. These increased to R71-million in 2012/13, jumped dramatically to R194-million and 2013/14 and jumped again to R270-million in 2014/15.