The Paramount Mwari, formerly known as AHRLAC (Advanced High Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft), is a South African light reconnaissance and counter-insurgency aircraft developed by Paramount Aerospace Industries, which started out as a joint venture between the Paramount Group and Aerosud. It is designed to perform as an inexpensive, more versatile substitute for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and modern light attack aircraft. On 26 July 2014, the Ahrlac conducted its maiden flight; on 13 August 2014, the aircraft performed its first public flight display at Wonderboom Airport. Both armed and unarmed models of the aircraft are sold, as well as a potential unmanned version.
Development
Origins In 2009, Paramount Group began working on a new light turboprop-powered counter-insurgency aircraft. The design study examined a fixed-wing aircraft as an affordable platform for both civilian and military applications as an alternative to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The design of the proposed aircraft drew on the company's prior experience producing helicopters, and several design elements, such as the steep tandem canopy adopted, have been attributed to this source of inspiration; the aircraft is intended to act as a viable alternative for helicopters. It had been conceived as an affordable intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and light-strike platform, for which the developers had identified an increasing level of market demand for such an aircraft. Critically, it was recognised that jet-powered aircraft such as the Sukhoi Su-25 that were typically being used in this role were often overly-equipped and quite costly to operate in such capacities; thus a strong emphasis on low-cost operations was established early on. In September 2011, design work on the Ahrlac project was formally initiated. According to its developers, the aircraft has been designed with the needs of First World customers in mind. It has also been claimed by its designers that the Ahrlac is to be the first fully indigenous military aircraft developed in Africa; additionally, it shall be the first South African military aircraft of any sort since the Denel Rooivalk attack helicopter, In 2011, the manufacturer stated that the price of the aircraft was projected at being under US$10 million per aircraft; the potential market for Ahrlac has been described as potentially being "in the hundreds or thousands of units". According to aviation author Bill Sweetman, the Ahrlac is likely to come at least partially into competition with the Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano and the Beechcraft T-6 Texan II; unlike either of those aircraft, it does not have any trainer heritage and thus is shaped distinctly differently, being more specialised to its low-intensity warfare role. In addition to existing manned products, the Ahrlac is intended to compete with UAVs in the marketplace; Paramount claims that the aircraft will be cheaper to acquire and operate than UAVs since the manned models of the Ahrlac shall not need the expensive subsystems required for the remote control of unmanned aircraft. In 2011, a full-scale mockup of the Ahrlac was constructed, alongside a quarter-scale flight-capable model that was later used for a total of 80 test flights. The first full-scale prototype, designated as the Experimental Demonstrator (XDM), was completed using design for manufacture technology, which allowed for jigless construction to be performed, thus producing both time and cost savings. Of the aircraft's 6,000 components, 98 per cent had been designed using CATIA software and were domestically manufactured. In May 2014, the flight test program commenced at Wonderboom Airport near Pretoria, the first prototype having been moved there from Aerosud's facility in Centurion, Gauteng. In July 2014, the ground test phase was reportedly completed.
Flight testing
On 26 July 2014, the first Ahrlac prototype conducted its maiden flight from Wonderboom. It was initially deployed on a 20-hour flight test program to contrast computer simulations against data from the prototype's real-world flight performance; during each of these flights, telemetry data was gathered inflight by a specially-equipped Pilatus PC-12 chase plane. The initial prototype is to be used to prove the flight characteristics and performance of the aircraft, while the second prototype, designated as the Advanced Demonstrator (ADM), shall be for testing armaments and mission systems. Advanced flight testing is to be carried out for the Ahrlac's full lifecycle as well. By February 2015, the first prototype had completed 65 hours of incident-free flying; as a result, the test program proceeded to the next phase, under which the flight envelope was progressively expanded to explore and evaluate its handling, center of gravity, flight performance, airframe qualities, and rough field capabilities. According to Paramount, several prospective customers had shown interest in the aircraft, particularly from the Middle East; the construction of the second prototype was also underway and had been proceeding smoothly so far. The initial prototype is claimed to have "matched all out initial predictions very closely". By September 2016, the prototype had accumulated 250 flying hours during tests, as well as a total of four deployments to the South African border and to neighbouring Botswana for the purpose of operationally representative trials. An improvised trial flight had also been conducted during an outbreak of civil unrest in South Africa. By September 2016, the developers were in the process of building a new assembly line at Wonderboom, this facility is expected to produce the initial two production aircraft in 2017. The Wonderboom factory is to be capable of producing up to two aircraft per month; it is reportedly readily expandable to double its current size, dependent on customer demand.
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