Spanish Shipbuilder Navantia and African-based global defence and aerospace business, Paramount Group, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on October 16 to jointly develop naval systems and vessels.
The move is aimed at meeting the increasing demand of South Africa and other African states, for innovative and value-adding maritime solutions to bolster the security of their marine and coastal assets. This MoU expands cooperation from the previous agreement between the two companies, that was specifically signed for project BIRO.
The scope of the collaboration will be defined based on customer requirements in the Maritime Industry across five key areas namely Through Life Support Management, Combat Systems and Platform Systems Integration, Procurement Management of materials and equipment, Operational Maintenance Training and the Transfer of Technology.
The agreement which was signed between Mr. Jose Manuel Revuelta, Navantia’s President and Mr. Eric Ichikowitz, Group International Marketing Director of Paramount Group, comes amid a growing need to protect and secure Africa’s coastlines, great lakes and rivers, and political and economic assets, including oil pipelines, shipping lanes, fisheries, tourist areas and national borders.
The agreement identifies several areas of collaboration as transfer of technology, through life cycle support, combat systems and platform systems integration (including in land products), procurement management, and operational and maintenance training.
Image: Navantia