The South African defence industry will need to pilot new projects and adapt to the Fourth Industrial Revolution in order to grow the defence sector and create jobs in the process.

To do this, however, Engineers Without Borders founder and CEO Wiebke Toussaint suggested the industry adopt the Internet of Things (IoT), machinery, artificial intelligence (AI) and big data for the defence industry to create opportunities in the sector.

All of these areas, she told delegates at this year’s Aerospace, Maritime and Defence Conference, in Johannesburg, are of “tremendous interest to young people at the moment”, and although these areas are of a highly-specialised nature, this assortment of skills is needed within the defence space.

The defence industry needs to advance in this, Toussaint elaborated, explaining that these areas of interest provide an opportunity for the defence industry to step forward and allow the youth to explore and better understand the sector.

She pointed out that, for the defence industry to ready itself for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it would need to consider that other industries, like manufacturing, will change, and that a renewed focus will be needed in terms of what the security risks would be, and whether the defence industry is positioned to look at those.

To position itself accordingly, the South African defence industry will need to integrate data protection and a potentially new view of security, together with hiring the correct people, and acquiring the knowledge that will drive South Africa forward.

“I believe that [the defence industry has] the capabilities to be ready, and I think we have the potential to operate within that space. But, so far, I haven’t seen the defence industry play in this space,” Toussaint lamented, noting that the defence industry has “all of the metrics to optimise and use something if it is applied for civil security”.

Additionally, while there are several concerns surrounding the Fourth Industrial Revolution, such as the loss of jobs, Department of Science and Technology chief director Beeuwen Gerryts encouraged industry members to “not be overwhelmed” by the negative aspects.

Instead, he suggested the industry needs to consider what benefits the Fourth Industrial Revolution will bring in terms of IoT and services.

Companies are struggling to adjust to the changes this revolution brings, he stated, explaining that “companies feel like they have something to lose in the change, which pushes the adoption and social and cultural and technical changes, but it also helps with the partnerships between government and industry”.

Using mining as an example, Gerryts explained that, while adapting to the Fourth Industrial Revolution may initially result in job losses, it will extend a mine’s life by a number of years. This, he pointed out, means longer periods of employment for workers, and allows for an opportunity to employ again, and more people, at a later stage.

A key opportunity for the defence industry, he added, is to have pilot projects and to focus on basic education, while adapting to the new dynamic that the revolution brings.

However, Gerryts said the biggest challenge in the revolution, or the convergence of technologies, is the ability to forecast or anticipate changes.

To this end, he told delegates that the building blocks to adapt to the revolution are available, but that “industry needs to find a way to integrate it”.

“What we see is that there are a lot of inherent building blocks in the system already. But the problem is that we’ve not linked them to respond to these rapid changes and see how [industry] can be a part of that,” he lamented.

According to Security and Defence Technology Consulting CEO Zane Cleophas, the Fourth Industrial Revolution will create new jobs and new fields of study.

Despite the defence industry’s disparity in its approach to the “inevitable disruption within the defence and aerospace industries”, he said the solution lies in the optimisation of the so-called “alien environment”.