SA munitions company enjoying technical and commercial success

17th October 2014

By: Keith Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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South African defence company Rheinmetall Denel Munition (RDM) is busy launching new products onto the international market.

The company, 51%-owned by German group Rheinmetall and 49% by South Africa’s State-owned Denel group, designs, develops and manufactures mortar bombs, aircraft bombs, artillery shells, shells for naval guns and lethal and nonlethal grenades for use by grenade launchers, as well as rocket and missile propulsion and warhead subsystems, safety and arming devices and plant design.

“We have a complete new 155 mm artillery ammunition range called Assegai,” reports RDM GM: business development and sales Thom Potgieter.

“We are in the process of finalising the suite of high explosive (HE), insensitive HE, pre-fragmented insensitive HE, illumination, infrared illumination, smoke, practice and V-LAPs (velocity-enhanced long-range artillery projectiles). V-LAP shells have a rocket [solid fuel] grain in the base of the projectile to give additional range. Very few countries have developed such a round. The qualification process will be finished by early next year. With the Assegai family, only one set of range tables is needed for all versions – all the types have the same ballistic characteristics. This is unique.”

RDM has already received orders for Assegai projectiles from two North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) and two Middle Eastern countries.

The company produces 76/62 mm shells for use by naval guns. This range is being upgraded to the latest international insensitive munitions standards. (Insensitive munitions are almost incapable of being detonated accidentally – in the event of a serious fire, for example – if they are not fused and armed.) RDM has enjoyed significant export success in this sector, with customers in the Middle East, the Far East and Latin America.

Another area in which the company has developed insensitive munitions is the area of aircraft bombs, and it now produces Mark (Mk) 81 and Mk 82 bombs with such munitions. (The Mk 81 and Mk 82 are originally US – but are now internationally used – designations for unguided aircraft bombs, forming, along with the Mk 83 and Mk 84, the Mk 80 family of low-drag general-purpose bombs. The Mk 81 is a 113 kg or 250 lb weapon and the Mk 82 a 227 kg or 500 lb weapon.)

RDM has also developed new suites of 60 mm and 81 mm mortar bombs. Both will be qualified to Nato standards (which are used by many countries outside Nato). The programme for the 60 mm bombs will be completed by the end of this year and that for the 81 mm round by the middle of next year. The 81 mm suite has already been selected by a Nato country and the 60 mm suite is in contention in another Nato country – the UK.

The company has also been very active in the realm of 40 mm grenades for firing from grenade launchers. Such grenades usually come in either high-velocity or low-velocity forms, with the former having ranges of up to 2.2 km and the latter ranges of about 400 m. “We’re introducing a medium-velocity type with a range of 800 m,” he affirms. “We’re actively marketing it today. There is huge interest around the world and from the South African Army. We’re also developing upgrades of low- and high-velocity rounds. These include new self-destruct fuses for high-velocity rounds – there is a huge requirement, worldwide, for self-destruct fuses. We’re selling our 40 mm products all over the world. They are in service in the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America and the Middle East.”

RDM is also developing new nonlethal rounds for police forces to replace plastic bullets, birdshot and baton rounds for riot control operations. Although these latter types of ammunition are usually nonlethal, the company’s new rounds are even less lethal, while still being effective against violent protestors.

Regarding rocket motors, warheads and safety and arming devices, the company works very closely with Denel Dynamics. “All South African missiles are joint developments by Denel Dynamics and RDM,” he notes.

Currently, RDM has an order book amounting to two-and-a-half years’ production and 80% of this is for exports. “The company is dependent on exports,” explains Potgieter. “The link with Rheinmetall is great for winning exports, especially in Nato countries. The company is doing very well – Rheinmetall has invested a lot in upgrading our facilities.”

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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