South Africa’s defence procurement, disposals and research and development agency, Armscor, is busy changing its relationship with the South African defence industry, Armscor CEO Kevin Wakeford has affirmed. It is moving from being prescriptive to industry to being collaborative with industry. “Industry is a client [of Armscor],” he asserted. “We have to come to the party!”
“As a developing continent, rogue behaviour will manifest from time to time,” he cautioned. The South African National Defence Force [SANDF] has to be prepared for this. However, “[w]e aren’t fully equipped – we aren’t meeting the [United Nations] benchmarking in certain situations”.
“What are the challenges?” he queried. “The Defence Review has been approved by Parliament. We have a political mandate. But it’s no good having a political mandate if you don’t have an economic mandate, a financial mandate, a funding mandate.”
In his address, he raised a number of questions and issues. “Some [South African defence] companies have very good order books and others don’t. We need to look into this – how to grow the industry and give the smaller players a better chance; how to define and maintain sovereign capabilities. Sovereign capabilities don’t necessarily mean State ownership . . . How can Armscor support the defence industry to make a quantum difference to the South African economy?”
Should the Preferrential Procurement Act and the Public Finance Management Act be amended to give certain exemptions for defence acquisition and procurement? Those defence companies focused on partnerships, whether with Armscor, the SANDF and/or other companies would, he suggested, be “likely to pick up some momentum.”
Then there was the potential for nondefence companies to support the SANDF, especially in its deployments elsewhere in Africa. “Which South African civilian industries can offer synergies with military requirements and the defence industry?” he questioned. “Support in Africa – what support can we get from the private sector?” One suggestion he made was that the SANDF, on deployment, buy food from the local subsidiaries of South African retail chains.
“The Defence Review requires funding,” he pointed out. “Can the Treasury afford it? . . . The SANDF has insufficient funding. Funding innovation is required for a cash injection.” There were underperforming and even idle State assets, which could be better exploited to help generate funding for defence, he suggested.
Armscor’s official mission is to “meet the defence materiel, defence technology, research, development, analysis, test and evaluation requirements of the Department of Defence and other organs of state effectively, efficiently and economically”. It has recognised and respected expertise in a wide variety of defence technologies. These are aircraft (both fixed-wing and helicopters), artillery systems, command and control systems, electronic warfare systems, guided and unguided weapon systems, munitions and small calibre ammunition, naval vessels, radar systems, system maintenance and support, telecommunication systems (static and tactical), unmanned air vehicles, and (ground) vehicledesign and manufacture (armoured and mine-protected as well as soft skin).
Acquisition activities embrace the compete life cycle of the product or system in question. First, the relevant branch of the SANDF issues its user requirement. Armscor then assesses the need. This is followed by the process of defining the solution to that need, which involves the concept design and definition phases of the project. Then follows the selection of the right company to fulfil the contract and the management of that contract, which covers the development, industrialisation and production phases of the project. Armscor’s involvement does not end with entry into service, for operational experience and advances in technology mean that, in due course, they become necessary to upgrade the product or system. The upgrade process goes through the same steps as the original acquisition programme. Finally, the product or system becomes obsolete and has to be phased out and either sold or scrapped. Armscor handles these processes as well.
Wakeford was speaking at the Denel Aerospace, Maritime and Defence Conference 2015 in Pretoria.