South African electronics company Etion Create, which recently became a Reunert group company, is highlighting its new brand identity along with its defence products at the International Defence Exhibition & Conference (IDEX) in the United Arab Emirates. IDEX is the biggest such event in the Middle East (ME), so is of global significance, and the 2023 show opened on Monday.

Reunert is a large South African industrial group, which can trace its history back to 1888 and has been listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange since 1948. Etion Create is now part of the group’s Applied Electronics business “segment”. Reunert’s other two business segments are Electrical Engineering and “ICT”.

The launch of Etion Create’s new identity was coupled with the launch of a redesigned website. Its new brand is dominated by its initials, EC, with its name, and displays its status as a Reunert Company. 

“It was felt that the name Etion Create is well-known and firmly established in the Middle East, an important market for our defence solutions,” explains company executive manager business development Tobie van Loggerenberg. “At the same time, a new identity coupled with a fresh look and feel, including the addition of the acronym EC, aligns the business perfectly with Reunert to take us to a new level of service to our customers.”

Etion Create has been active in the defence sector for decades. At IDEX it is exhibiting its in-house designed, developed and owned CheetahNAV military vehicle navigation system. Designed for extreme battlefield conditions and harsh environments, this system uses an inertial measurement unit which includes an advanced algorithm. This provides a horizontal position accuracy of 0.2% of the distance it has travelled, which is equivalent to 200 m over a distance of 100 km. Note that this accuracy is achieved without any input from navigation satellite systems.

CheetahNAV displays its data on a sunlight readable touchscreen, with a resolution of 1 920 x 1 080. It has a multi-language option, for export markets. The company is prepared to transfer technology to permit customers to undertake local manufacture. The system has already been adopted by several international manufacturers for installation in their mine-resistant ambush-protected (and other) vehicles. “To date, we have [also] concluded several contracts for the CheetahNAV in this [ME] region,” he reports.

Etion Create also provides various electronic systems to the mining, railway and renewable energy sectors, both at home and abroad.