Western brains for a Soviet gunship

South Africa’s defence industry learned under arms embargo to upgrade other people’s aircraft, and Advanced Technologies and Engineering made that its business. Its best-known product took the Soviet-built Mil Mi-24 Hind, the heavily armoured assault helicopter flown across Africa and the Middle East, and rebuilt it as the Super Hind. The Mk II, prototyped on converted Mi-24R airframes, swapped Soviet instruments for modern Western avionics, and one Mi-24P served as the test bed for a new sighting system.

The Vulture

The Super Hind grew from there. The Mk III was a full operational upgrade covering weapons, avionics and countermeasures, and the Mk IV added a vortex air-particle separator over the engine intakes to cope with desert sand. A Mk V with a completely redesigned nose and cockpit got no further than a mock-up. ATE also built aircraft of its own: the Vulture unmanned aircraft, catapulted from a Samil 100 truck, fully automatic from launch to recovery and able to loiter for about four hours 60 km from its launcher. The South African Army artillery uses it for target acquisition and fire control.

Business rescue and Paramount

ATE ran into financial trouble and spent some time under a business rescue plan. On 10 June 2013 the Paramount Group, the Johannesburg defence company best known for armoured vehicles, said its takeover of ATE was at an advanced stage. The business continued inside Paramount as Paramount Advanced Technologies, alongside the group’s other aerospace interests, which include the former Aerosud and the Ahrlac light attack aircraft. The Super Hind, a Soviet gunship rebuilt with Western systems in South Africa, remains the company’s best-known legacy.