“A competitive, indigenous, guided missiles design and development capability serves a number of strategic objectives for South Africa and other advanced developing nations. It remains, however, a national decision (not only a commercial one), given the long-term nature of this investment and commitment,” said Wessels.

At a Defence Industry seminar this week, the possibility of going beyond a two-country collaboration to exploring trilateral opportunities on defence projects was discussed.

Speaking at the seminar, Secretary of Defence Mpumi Mpofu said defence projects were complex by nature, becoming even more complicated with several partners involved both within industry and governments.

“It is the intention of the three Ministries of Defence that we will establish an IBSA team to identify potential areas of co-operation and visit the defence industries of the three countries,” said Mpofu.

“The team would constitute members from each country, led by South Africa. It will report its findings to the trilateral forum after the first visit, which is to take place in Brazil in 2012,” she said.

Currently, a Denel Dynamics business development team is attending the Annual Defence Conference in Brazil. The conference is addressing national defence strategies for best practice and perspectives on transformation.