South African aerospace and defence company Paramount Group has received orders from five sovereign nations for its Mbombe 4 infantry combat vehicle (ICV) in the three years since its launch at the 2019 International Defence Exhibition & Conference (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi.

Since then, Paramount notes that the Mbombe 4 has generated significant levels of interest from global armed forces in their pursuit of equipment with next-generation survivability, mobility and ruggedness.

The Mbombe 4 is currently produced in Africa and Asia, with more than 150 platforms either being manufactured or on order for global delivery or deployment.

Paramount reports that the Mbombe 4’s continued global demand is a testament to the success of the groups so-called portable manufacturing model.

Paramount CEO Steve Griessel says the portable production of interoperable platforms, such as the Mbombe 4, can play a key role in creating defence industrial bases within partner countries.

“The Mbombe 4, and its evolutionary capabilities, reflect world-beating innovation, affordability and importantly, homegrown production opportunity, which has enabled our manufacturing expertise to be replicated on a global scale,” he says.

An example of this model is the 2021 partnership with India-based engineering and technology conglomerate The Kalyani Group, resulting in the production of large numbers of an Indian variant of the Mbombe 4 – the Kalyani 4, in India.

Production of the Kalyani 4 in India was followed by an order of the vehicles by the Ministry of Defence of India.

“Having implemented our local production model in several locations around the world, we are in a unique position to offer industry partners and governments the capability to set up local manufacturing facilities, transfer skills and technologies and start production of vehicles in less than a year,” says Griessel.

The Mbombe 4, like all Paramount’s technology platforms, has been designed from the outset for production within customer countries. “This is a key requirement from governments looking to strengthen their indigenous defence industrial capabilities,” he adds.

Manufactured with a clean-sheet design and equipped with modern technologies that are mission-critical to address the asymmetrical challenges of the modern battlefield, the platform provides high degrees of both ballistics and mine protection.

In this regard, the crew compartment is North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) standardisation agreement (Stanag) 4569 Level 3 protected, with blast protection to Stanag 4569 Level 4a and 4b.

This armour is also independently verified protection against a side blast or roadside bomb of 50 kg of trinitrotoluene explosive.

Further, Paramount reports that with its newly tested and certified add-on armour and a lightweight shielding system, the armour of the 16 t Mbombe 4 is improved to cover all Level 3 threats within Nato Stanag 4569, offering some of the highest levels of protection that can be achieved globally by an armoured vehicle in its class.

Other key features of the Mbombe 4 include a burst speed of 140 km/h.

The platform also hosts industry-distinct flat-floor mine protection and a rear-door ramp design which ensures the rapid deployment of the crew while the vehicle is static or moving.

“Paramount believes in global partnerships. The Mbombe 4 has offered our partners and customers in-country production of best-in-class technologies with the prospect of localised high-skills training and job creation, fundamental to enhancing any nation’s modern defence capabilities, now and in future,” concludes Griessel.