Defence and security company Saab has received three orders for self-protection equipment for the German Air Force’s Tornado fleet which forms the backbone of the German Luftwaffe air defence capability.
Development and production of the order will take place at Saab Grintek Defence South Africa in Centurion, as well as at Saab in Järfälla, Sweden.
The contracts entail certification and limited production of the BOZ-101 EC podded self-protection system, including the MAW-300 missile approach warning system, as well as development and qualification of a new cockpit control unit for the pod.
Chris Skinner, head of marketing and sales as Saab Grintek Defence (SGD), says: “The main core of the MAW-300 based protection systems to be used on the Tornado fleet in Germany has been developed and manufactured in South Africa and is part of our Integrated Defensive Aids Suite (IDAS) that we successfully sell to customers around the globe. The fact that the German Luftwaffe selected this product is testimony to our innovation and high technical standards we subscribe to at Saab.”
The German Tornado IDS and ECR aircraft are expected to be in service for many years to come. The BOZ EC family of pods provide the Tornado fleet with integrated missile warning (MAW-300) and cocktail flare dispensing capabilities to defeat advanced threats.
A version of the pod, BOZ-102 EC, is in operational use within the Italian Air Force since 2008.
In total, the orders amount to about R150-million.