buglerbilly
25-03-10, 01:24 AM
A Strategic Partnership in the Defence Industry – Germany and Peru
Sales opportunities will strengthen German-Peruvian trade relations.
State-of-the-art technology for the Peruvian Armed Forces
07:32 GMT, March 24, 2010
For more than 30 years the Latin American continent has been a reliable and important market for the German defence industry. A significant number of nations in South America decided to equip their armed forces with state-of-the-art defence equipment that has been developed and manufactured in Germany. In this light, the favoured trade relations with Germany, in particular, represent an essential contribution to the effective and rapid modernisation of the Peruvian Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas del Perú). The success of the Peruvian-German defence co-operation can be seen in the case of the Class 209 submarines that have been in service with the Armed Forces for more than 25 years. These submarines are being used by the Peruvian Navy for littoral defence and have proven their worth as a reliable weapon system during the past decades. Against this background, the German defence industry offers further possibilities for the Peruvian Armed Forces to procure state-of-the-art weapon systems in the future.
German industry strongly emphasised this commercial offer with the active participation of a score of companies at last year’s international SITDEF trade show in Lima. On this occasion, Peruvian industry was offered the opportunity to co-operate with the German defence industry in an extensive range of fields of technology. This industrial co-operation offer has since been tailored to the country’s requirements and the technical and economical possibilities in the field of defence and met widespread interest in the Peruvian Armed Forces. Throughout the years, the German defence industry has proven to be a source of reliable, long-lasting, and high-performance equipment for the Peruvian Armed Forces.
Their German-built submarines were modernised only a few years ago to maintain the country’s littoral defence capability at a high technological and military standard. The Franco-German helicopter manufacturer, Eurocopter, is also a supplier of the Peruvian Armed Forces, which has operated eleven of the company’s Bo105 LS military helicopters for several years. The German defence industry is very interested in further developing these very good economic relations in the future and to extend this co-operation to other fields of technology which, so far, have not been taken into account by the two countries.
Modernisation Commitment and Accomplished Projects in Peru
According to the Peruvian Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Armed Forces are to be modernised and ageing equipment is to be replaced. The military leadership places a particular focus on heavy infantry weapons systems, military communications technology, light combat aircraft and main battle tanks.
Consequently, Peru has decided to procure up to twelve A-29 Super Tucano aircraft from Brazil. Some elements of this aircraft’s avionics have been produced by German systems provider Diehl Avionik. According to the Peruvian government, the aircraft will be used in the fight against the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) guerrilla organisation and drug cartels. While the aircraft manufacturer, Embraer, offers and sells light attack aircraft in South America, Asian and European defence companies have become attracted to the procurement market in Peru. As a result, the Chinese state-run defence industry offered the MBT-2000 main battle tank to Peru at a favourable price.
Experts suppose that, in order to further invest in Peru, China may be awarded the profitable order. China is among the most important trade partners of the South American country. Some 11 per cent of the export share in 2009 are attributed to China and the trend is growing. The reason for this is that Peru is Latin America’s largest producer of gold, zinc, tin, lead, bismuth, tellurium and indium. The entire Peruvian territory contains significant amounts of natural resources. Furthermore, Peru is the largest producer of silver and tellurium and globally comes in second in the production of zinc and third for copper. This data was published by the Ministry of Energy and Mining in late 2009.
Being a large consumer of resources, China generally plays a significant role. The country heavily invests in Peru in order to secure natural resources for its market, which are also strongly required by China’s defence industry. For instance, China only recently bought the largest aluminium factory in Peru.
In a next step, the Chinese National Bank granted high and interest-free credits to Peru for a 20 year period which are intended to quickly help stimulate the country’s economy – a good political move to deepen and strengthen bilateral trade relations.
Following the granting of loans to Peru, the country’s president, Alan Garcia, declared as a top priority the selection of Chinese weapons systems as the first option in the procurement of new defence equipment for the Armed Forces.
From a security-political perspective this position is comprehensible. However, the procurement of Chinese defence equipment may include a number or risks, ranging from technical shortcomings to a lack of willingness to cooperate with the purchasing nation. In the long run, these technological risks within the modernisation process of the Armed Forces have to be considered critically beyond their security-political aspects.
Within the framework of international defence deals, these risks are being contractually excluded by corresponding quality requirements and by the agreements of offset deals. This contributes to creating a win-win situation for both contracting parties and eliminates all problems in government agreements.
Over the past 30 years many South American nations have had unfavourable experiences with the procurement of US and Russian defence technology which was purchased at low costs but resulted in significant expenses for logistical support throughout the years. This heavy burden for the defence budget of these countries, not contributing to strengthening their armed forces, resulted in a reorientation of procurement policies in South America and, at first, the countries looked towards European partners to procure state-of-the-art military equipment.
However, in the recent past China moved into the focus of Latin American procurement considerations. According to information from leading Western intelligence services, the government in Beijing saw South America as a key market for natural resources in the upcoming years and, in return, offers defence equipment at favourable terms to local governments. This benefits the Latin American states only to a certain extent, as these products at first are low priced. However, the technological standards of these defence products cannot be compared to those of international manufacturers. In addition, having been manufactured based upon higher military standards, European defence equipment has proven its worth in international military operations. These technological standards guarantee high efficiency, long life cycles and can be safely operated by the soldiers.
A High Significance with the Peruvian Army
The Peruvian Army is currently undergoing a significant modernisation process in order to be better equipped and to increase its capabilities in the future. The introduction of new military technologies is not an easy task for the Peruvian Armed Forces, taking into consideration the current defence budget restraints. Hence, limited budget resources have to be skilfully distributed in the modernisation of the Armed Forces to meet the different requirements. However, the country’s current security situation requires rapid action by the government in order to effectively counter prevailing threats.
The Peruvian Chief of Staff of the Army, General Otto Guibovich, emphasised the requirement for the quick modernisation of the Peruvian Armed Forces. The fight has not been lost, as certain circles claim. Yet, the Army requires state-of-the-art reconnaissance equipment to fight guerrilla forces in their remote jungle hideouts which, in addition, are often protected by a dense fog. The General explains that the procurement of new weapons systems had been initiated three years ago, however, until today troops did not receive any new equipment due to complicated bureaucratic procedures. He warned that, should the Sendero Luminoso not be systematically encountered now, Peru might one day have to fight a guerrilla organisation such as the FARC in Colombia.
Further Technical Shortcomings
In light of the threat to national security from terror and guerrilla forces, the requirement for portable and long-range infantry weapon systems moves to the centre of attention of the Peruvian Army. Further, the Army currently does not possess a man-portable weapons system that provides an anti-armour or anti-structure capability with a long-range component.
In order to effectively fight guerrilla forces in the jungle, with insurgents operating in the cover of large tree trunks or foxholes, special forces soldiers require a man-portable weapons system that can easily be transported and shoulder-fired. These weapons have to provide a high effect on target and high precision day and night against a variety of targets. Furthermore, they have to be light in order not to overburden soldiers operating in complicated jungle warfare and to maintain a high level of flexibility. The main suppliers for such weapon systems can only be found in Europe.
German-based Dynamit Nobel Defence (DND) is among the world’s leading suppliers, offering the most effective weapon systems for anti-tank operations as well as in operations against a multitude of targets. These state-of-the-art, long-range and light infantry weapons provide soldiers with high combat fire power in situations that do not permit calling for artillery and close air support, since it could endanger fellow troops.
In particular, in the field of shoulder-launched weapons systems it has become of crucial significance that, next to high effective power, the weapon can be adequately optimised by the operator in accordance to the target. This construction characteristic also allows for effectively using an anti-armour weapon against bunker targets or fortified field emplacements.
German weapon systems are considered very reliable, powerful and safe to operate by soldiers. Furthermore, the weapons are easy to handle, can be fired out of confined spaces and allow an unproblematic application of night-vision technology and other targeting devices. This makes German-built anti-tank weapons the first choice for Peruvian Special Forces and commando units which have to stand the test in jungle warfare.
For conventional national defence tasks many operators have asked for the capabilities of the Panzerfaust 3 shoulder-fired anti-tank weapon since soldiers, if necessary, have to prevail against a main battle tank.
An important prerequisite of modern armed forces is to be equipped against a variety of threats, ranging from asymmetric to conventional combat situations in MOUT scenarios. This requirement makes the Panzerfaust 3 the infantry soldier’s weapon of choice and is an indispensable asset of today’s armed forces.
The technical concept of the Panzerfaust 3 provides the operator with a number of characteristics that allow the effective use of the weapon against a variety of targets in different geographical areas. The 12.9kg-heavy Panzerfaust 3 can be fired out of confined spaces, due to the Davis Gun Counter-Mass principle, and has no recoil when fired. All controls and elements, including the optical sight, firing handle and handhold of this weapon are ergonomically optimised for the operator to provide an easy and safe handling by the soldier in all shooting positions (lying prone, standing or kneeling). After the weapon has been fired, the firing device and the attached optical sight are removed from the tube, which is then discarded by the soldier.
The Panzerfaust 3 can be used against structures such as sandbag bunkers, concrete bunkers and fortified dugouts or machine gun emplacements. Due to its high warhead performance, even such targets do not resist when hit.
In addition, night vision and sight devices can be applied to the Panzerfaust 3 to increase the shooters’ targeting capabilities. The weapon features a serial-production magnifying optical sight with high-performance that provides a high first hit probability. Even emplacements that have been fortified with heavy logs can be effectively countered. The reason for this capability is the fact that the Panzerfaust 3 includes a strong 110mm diameter warhead that offers a high primary and secondary effect that is released when detonated.
Additionally, an always-effective and high-performance hand weapon that is not limited to anti-tank operations but can also be used in urban warfare scenarios, is the RGW 90 (Recoilless Grenade Weapon 90mm) built by DND. The shoulder-launched weapon can be delivered with various warheads. This includes an armour-penetrating and an anti-structure warhead. The RGW 90 weighs only 9kg and, thereby, is four kilograms lighter than the Panzerfaust 3.
The RGW 90, which is designed as a single-use weapon, features a special warhead which is a technical combination of a High-Explosive Squash Head (HESH) and a High-Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) warhead. Due to this combination, the RGW 90 is a powerful asset in MOUT or asymmetric combat scenarios and is an optimal weapon for infantry and Special Forces units. The RGW 90 can be used against a broad range of fortified targets, including field dugouts, sandbag emplacements, sniper positions or anti-tank emplacements. In addition, concrete and brick walls as well as dugouts can be penetrated to eliminate entrenched enemies.
To activate the HESH warhead of the RGW 90, the spike remains in the warhead and is not extracted. When the HESH mode is activated, the weapon can penetrate concrete and brick structures.
Creating Further Opportunities
Compared to other shoulder-fired heavy infantry systems available on the international market, European-built weapon systems have a sophisticated technical level and a high reliability. According to Peruvian defence experts, the hand weapons supplied by Dynamit Novel Defence can contribute to adequately equip the Peruvian Armed Forces to fight the threats which they currently encounter. These new military threats require high-quality, easy of use and highly effective infantry weapons systems that can be employed in urban environment, woodlands or flat areas.
The possible purchase of German hand weapon systems will strengthen the German-Peruvian trade relations and create additional opportunities to implement further projects and technologies for the Armed Forces.
----
This article is part of the defpro.focus “The South American Defence Market” which can be accessed here: http://www.defpro.com/focus/profile/the_south_ameri/.
Sales opportunities will strengthen German-Peruvian trade relations.
State-of-the-art technology for the Peruvian Armed Forces
07:32 GMT, March 24, 2010
For more than 30 years the Latin American continent has been a reliable and important market for the German defence industry. A significant number of nations in South America decided to equip their armed forces with state-of-the-art defence equipment that has been developed and manufactured in Germany. In this light, the favoured trade relations with Germany, in particular, represent an essential contribution to the effective and rapid modernisation of the Peruvian Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas del Perú). The success of the Peruvian-German defence co-operation can be seen in the case of the Class 209 submarines that have been in service with the Armed Forces for more than 25 years. These submarines are being used by the Peruvian Navy for littoral defence and have proven their worth as a reliable weapon system during the past decades. Against this background, the German defence industry offers further possibilities for the Peruvian Armed Forces to procure state-of-the-art weapon systems in the future.
German industry strongly emphasised this commercial offer with the active participation of a score of companies at last year’s international SITDEF trade show in Lima. On this occasion, Peruvian industry was offered the opportunity to co-operate with the German defence industry in an extensive range of fields of technology. This industrial co-operation offer has since been tailored to the country’s requirements and the technical and economical possibilities in the field of defence and met widespread interest in the Peruvian Armed Forces. Throughout the years, the German defence industry has proven to be a source of reliable, long-lasting, and high-performance equipment for the Peruvian Armed Forces.
Their German-built submarines were modernised only a few years ago to maintain the country’s littoral defence capability at a high technological and military standard. The Franco-German helicopter manufacturer, Eurocopter, is also a supplier of the Peruvian Armed Forces, which has operated eleven of the company’s Bo105 LS military helicopters for several years. The German defence industry is very interested in further developing these very good economic relations in the future and to extend this co-operation to other fields of technology which, so far, have not been taken into account by the two countries.
Modernisation Commitment and Accomplished Projects in Peru
According to the Peruvian Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Armed Forces are to be modernised and ageing equipment is to be replaced. The military leadership places a particular focus on heavy infantry weapons systems, military communications technology, light combat aircraft and main battle tanks.
Consequently, Peru has decided to procure up to twelve A-29 Super Tucano aircraft from Brazil. Some elements of this aircraft’s avionics have been produced by German systems provider Diehl Avionik. According to the Peruvian government, the aircraft will be used in the fight against the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) guerrilla organisation and drug cartels. While the aircraft manufacturer, Embraer, offers and sells light attack aircraft in South America, Asian and European defence companies have become attracted to the procurement market in Peru. As a result, the Chinese state-run defence industry offered the MBT-2000 main battle tank to Peru at a favourable price.
Experts suppose that, in order to further invest in Peru, China may be awarded the profitable order. China is among the most important trade partners of the South American country. Some 11 per cent of the export share in 2009 are attributed to China and the trend is growing. The reason for this is that Peru is Latin America’s largest producer of gold, zinc, tin, lead, bismuth, tellurium and indium. The entire Peruvian territory contains significant amounts of natural resources. Furthermore, Peru is the largest producer of silver and tellurium and globally comes in second in the production of zinc and third for copper. This data was published by the Ministry of Energy and Mining in late 2009.
Being a large consumer of resources, China generally plays a significant role. The country heavily invests in Peru in order to secure natural resources for its market, which are also strongly required by China’s defence industry. For instance, China only recently bought the largest aluminium factory in Peru.
In a next step, the Chinese National Bank granted high and interest-free credits to Peru for a 20 year period which are intended to quickly help stimulate the country’s economy – a good political move to deepen and strengthen bilateral trade relations.
Following the granting of loans to Peru, the country’s president, Alan Garcia, declared as a top priority the selection of Chinese weapons systems as the first option in the procurement of new defence equipment for the Armed Forces.
From a security-political perspective this position is comprehensible. However, the procurement of Chinese defence equipment may include a number or risks, ranging from technical shortcomings to a lack of willingness to cooperate with the purchasing nation. In the long run, these technological risks within the modernisation process of the Armed Forces have to be considered critically beyond their security-political aspects.
Within the framework of international defence deals, these risks are being contractually excluded by corresponding quality requirements and by the agreements of offset deals. This contributes to creating a win-win situation for both contracting parties and eliminates all problems in government agreements.
Over the past 30 years many South American nations have had unfavourable experiences with the procurement of US and Russian defence technology which was purchased at low costs but resulted in significant expenses for logistical support throughout the years. This heavy burden for the defence budget of these countries, not contributing to strengthening their armed forces, resulted in a reorientation of procurement policies in South America and, at first, the countries looked towards European partners to procure state-of-the-art military equipment.
However, in the recent past China moved into the focus of Latin American procurement considerations. According to information from leading Western intelligence services, the government in Beijing saw South America as a key market for natural resources in the upcoming years and, in return, offers defence equipment at favourable terms to local governments. This benefits the Latin American states only to a certain extent, as these products at first are low priced. However, the technological standards of these defence products cannot be compared to those of international manufacturers. In addition, having been manufactured based upon higher military standards, European defence equipment has proven its worth in international military operations. These technological standards guarantee high efficiency, long life cycles and can be safely operated by the soldiers.
A High Significance with the Peruvian Army
The Peruvian Army is currently undergoing a significant modernisation process in order to be better equipped and to increase its capabilities in the future. The introduction of new military technologies is not an easy task for the Peruvian Armed Forces, taking into consideration the current defence budget restraints. Hence, limited budget resources have to be skilfully distributed in the modernisation of the Armed Forces to meet the different requirements. However, the country’s current security situation requires rapid action by the government in order to effectively counter prevailing threats.
The Peruvian Chief of Staff of the Army, General Otto Guibovich, emphasised the requirement for the quick modernisation of the Peruvian Armed Forces. The fight has not been lost, as certain circles claim. Yet, the Army requires state-of-the-art reconnaissance equipment to fight guerrilla forces in their remote jungle hideouts which, in addition, are often protected by a dense fog. The General explains that the procurement of new weapons systems had been initiated three years ago, however, until today troops did not receive any new equipment due to complicated bureaucratic procedures. He warned that, should the Sendero Luminoso not be systematically encountered now, Peru might one day have to fight a guerrilla organisation such as the FARC in Colombia.
Further Technical Shortcomings
In light of the threat to national security from terror and guerrilla forces, the requirement for portable and long-range infantry weapon systems moves to the centre of attention of the Peruvian Army. Further, the Army currently does not possess a man-portable weapons system that provides an anti-armour or anti-structure capability with a long-range component.
In order to effectively fight guerrilla forces in the jungle, with insurgents operating in the cover of large tree trunks or foxholes, special forces soldiers require a man-portable weapons system that can easily be transported and shoulder-fired. These weapons have to provide a high effect on target and high precision day and night against a variety of targets. Furthermore, they have to be light in order not to overburden soldiers operating in complicated jungle warfare and to maintain a high level of flexibility. The main suppliers for such weapon systems can only be found in Europe.
German-based Dynamit Nobel Defence (DND) is among the world’s leading suppliers, offering the most effective weapon systems for anti-tank operations as well as in operations against a multitude of targets. These state-of-the-art, long-range and light infantry weapons provide soldiers with high combat fire power in situations that do not permit calling for artillery and close air support, since it could endanger fellow troops.
In particular, in the field of shoulder-launched weapons systems it has become of crucial significance that, next to high effective power, the weapon can be adequately optimised by the operator in accordance to the target. This construction characteristic also allows for effectively using an anti-armour weapon against bunker targets or fortified field emplacements.
German weapon systems are considered very reliable, powerful and safe to operate by soldiers. Furthermore, the weapons are easy to handle, can be fired out of confined spaces and allow an unproblematic application of night-vision technology and other targeting devices. This makes German-built anti-tank weapons the first choice for Peruvian Special Forces and commando units which have to stand the test in jungle warfare.
For conventional national defence tasks many operators have asked for the capabilities of the Panzerfaust 3 shoulder-fired anti-tank weapon since soldiers, if necessary, have to prevail against a main battle tank.
An important prerequisite of modern armed forces is to be equipped against a variety of threats, ranging from asymmetric to conventional combat situations in MOUT scenarios. This requirement makes the Panzerfaust 3 the infantry soldier’s weapon of choice and is an indispensable asset of today’s armed forces.
The technical concept of the Panzerfaust 3 provides the operator with a number of characteristics that allow the effective use of the weapon against a variety of targets in different geographical areas. The 12.9kg-heavy Panzerfaust 3 can be fired out of confined spaces, due to the Davis Gun Counter-Mass principle, and has no recoil when fired. All controls and elements, including the optical sight, firing handle and handhold of this weapon are ergonomically optimised for the operator to provide an easy and safe handling by the soldier in all shooting positions (lying prone, standing or kneeling). After the weapon has been fired, the firing device and the attached optical sight are removed from the tube, which is then discarded by the soldier.
The Panzerfaust 3 can be used against structures such as sandbag bunkers, concrete bunkers and fortified dugouts or machine gun emplacements. Due to its high warhead performance, even such targets do not resist when hit.
In addition, night vision and sight devices can be applied to the Panzerfaust 3 to increase the shooters’ targeting capabilities. The weapon features a serial-production magnifying optical sight with high-performance that provides a high first hit probability. Even emplacements that have been fortified with heavy logs can be effectively countered. The reason for this capability is the fact that the Panzerfaust 3 includes a strong 110mm diameter warhead that offers a high primary and secondary effect that is released when detonated.
Additionally, an always-effective and high-performance hand weapon that is not limited to anti-tank operations but can also be used in urban warfare scenarios, is the RGW 90 (Recoilless Grenade Weapon 90mm) built by DND. The shoulder-launched weapon can be delivered with various warheads. This includes an armour-penetrating and an anti-structure warhead. The RGW 90 weighs only 9kg and, thereby, is four kilograms lighter than the Panzerfaust 3.
The RGW 90, which is designed as a single-use weapon, features a special warhead which is a technical combination of a High-Explosive Squash Head (HESH) and a High-Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) warhead. Due to this combination, the RGW 90 is a powerful asset in MOUT or asymmetric combat scenarios and is an optimal weapon for infantry and Special Forces units. The RGW 90 can be used against a broad range of fortified targets, including field dugouts, sandbag emplacements, sniper positions or anti-tank emplacements. In addition, concrete and brick walls as well as dugouts can be penetrated to eliminate entrenched enemies.
To activate the HESH warhead of the RGW 90, the spike remains in the warhead and is not extracted. When the HESH mode is activated, the weapon can penetrate concrete and brick structures.
Creating Further Opportunities
Compared to other shoulder-fired heavy infantry systems available on the international market, European-built weapon systems have a sophisticated technical level and a high reliability. According to Peruvian defence experts, the hand weapons supplied by Dynamit Novel Defence can contribute to adequately equip the Peruvian Armed Forces to fight the threats which they currently encounter. These new military threats require high-quality, easy of use and highly effective infantry weapons systems that can be employed in urban environment, woodlands or flat areas.
The possible purchase of German hand weapon systems will strengthen the German-Peruvian trade relations and create additional opportunities to implement further projects and technologies for the Armed Forces.
----
This article is part of the defpro.focus “The South American Defence Market” which can be accessed here: http://www.defpro.com/focus/profile/the_south_ameri/.