Defence buys more weapons

GOVERNMENT’s spending on military hardware appears uninterrupted even as the rest of the state is undergoing deep budget cuts.

This became apparent yesterday when South African state-owned weapons manufacturer, Denel, announced that it would be making a substantial weapons delivery to the country by the end of March this year.

In a statement the Denel put up on its website yesterday it was announced that subsidiary Denel Vehicle Systems had received an order for and been paid to deliver eight landmine resistant light armoured vehicles and an four installations of a lightweight weapons system, simply named Self Defence Remotely Operated Weapon (SDROW).    

The SDROW, the statement said, is designed for easy installation on a variety of vehicles and platforms and can be operated remotely by one crew member or even undercover.

“Depending on the selected weapon configuration the SDROW is effective against enemy targets at a range of over 600 metres,” the statement claims.

The RG32M armoured patrol vehicle is a mine-resistant lightweight vehicle widely used by peacekeeping forces across the world and the latest version, Denel said in the statement, had been developed for deployment in Namibia.

Denel also stated that it supplied other parts of Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Balkans.

Defence minister Penda ya Ndakolo yesterday refused to confirm or deny the Denel order of vehicles and weapon systems.

“You know we cannot talk about this because of security. I am sorry, we should be working together,” he said, while defence permanent secretary Peter Shivute said the report was not news.

Former defence minister Nahas Angula, who retired in 2014, said he knew nothing about the vehicles or the weapon systems, suggesting the order was recent, originating either in 2015 or last year.

Finance minister Calle Schlettwein said by law the military was allowed to procure without going through the finance ministry.

Angula, however, questioned the purchase, saying: “Where would the money come from?”

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (Sipri) arms transfer database, Namibia ordered anti-tank missiles from Russia back in 2014 but no mention is made of delivery.

Angula also denied such an order saying the only weapons ordered from Russia were AK-47s. He did not say what quantity.

Namibia’s defence force has historically been amongst the biggest recipients of funds from the national budget.

An online portal, Global Firepower (GFP), that analyses data on military spending and readiness of more than 125 countries, ranks Namibia number 124 in 2016. GPF says its ranking is based largely on each nation’s potential conventional war-making capability across land, sea and air with the final ranking incorporating values related to resources, finances and geography.

According to GFP, Namibia has 10 armoured fighting vehicles, 30 towed-artillery and four multiple-launch rocket systems.

In addition, GFP says, Namibia has 32 aircraft, consisting of six fighters/interceptors, 14 transport aircraft, nine helicopters and two attack helicopters. There are also six coastal defence craft.