South Africa and Malaysia Collaborate on Electronic Warfare Defense

South Africa and Malaysia have joined forces to combat modern warfare with a new research and development center scheduled to open in 2016 in Kuala Lumpur, DefenceWeb reports.  Electronic and network-centric warfare; radar and sensor technology will be top priorities at the new Centre of Excellence for Advanced Defence Technologies, according to the report.

This is just the latest in a series of cooperative agreements between South Africa and Malaysia that include working together on integrated weapon systems, drones and human capital development.  The South Africa-Malaysia agreement was announced this week to coincide with 14th Defence Services Asia show being hosted in Malaysia. South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the National Defence University of Malaysia signed a memo of agreement for 10 years with the two institutions collaborating on crucial aspects of modern warfare.

The focus on electronic warfare defense research will include static or dynamic target signature measurement, electronic self-protection, electronic support measures and instrumentation for electronic warfare ranges for measurement and  evaluation,  according to DefenceWeb.  For network-centric warfare, research and development between South Africa and Malaysia will focus on information warfare; extraction of intent and data dissemination interoperability; data fusion and capability management.

The radar and sensor research and development will focus on imaging technology; target identification; advanced search and track technologies; beam-steering and active-phased array research; synthetic aperture radar; persistent wide-area surveillance on land, sea and air targets; as well as software modelling and simulation.

Help Wanted

The center hopes to attract, develop and retain talented research and development  professionals competent in advanced applications-oriented engineering research.  In February, South Africa’s Denel Aerostructures and Strand Aerospace Malaysia signed a  memorandum of understanding regarding human capital development and new markets. Denel is a South African government-owned aerospace and defense technology conglomerate established in 1991.

The agreement is one of three between various Malaysian entities with South African companies connected with a 3.5 billion rand ($332 million) contract for integrated weapons systems that will be fitted to Malaysian armored infantry fighting vehicles. Five more memos of understanding are pending e and others have been identified but not finalized that involve unmanned aerial vehicles, laser additive manufacturing and the automotive industry, DefenceWeb stated.

Source: AFK Insider