Denel to deliver first production A-Darter missiles to the SAAF this month
Date: 2 July 2025
Denel Dynamics is due to deliver the first operational A-Darter fifth generation air-to-air missiles to the South African Air Force (SAAF) this month, after years of delays.
In a presentation to Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Defence (JSCD) on 13 June, Denel stated that eight inert practice missiles have already been delivered to the SAAF, along with four acquisition trainer missiles (out of an order for 21). The first four operational A-Darters are scheduled for delivery this month, with 37 more to follow.
Deliveries are under Project Kamas, the industrialisation phase that followed A-Darter development under Project Assegaai. A three-year delay in the completion of development led to extended Project Kamas delays, Denel explained, with liquidity challenges resulting in the loss of key skills and subsequent delays.
The company explained that actions had been taken for limited recovery of the programme and subsequent deliveries. “The missile production deliveries can now be accelerated with access to additional working capital.”
The A-Darter is a short-range dogfighting weapon (some seven kilometres range) but with some outstanding features. The missile has a high off-boresight capability, which means the missile can detect a target at 180 degrees from the heading of the launch aircraft.
Further, the A-Darter has Lock on Before Launch (LOBL) and Lock on After Launch (LOAL) capability, which means that the initial lock is achieved while the missile is still on the aircraft’s wingtip and the Lock on After is engaged by the A-Darter’s optical seeker head after the missile is fired.
The seeker is an Imaging Infrared (IIR) dual colour optical head which can detect between chaff and flares and the target. The missile can handle 80 Gs. Even if the missile is fired at a target coming from the front, and it passes the pilot, the missile will make a U-turn and follow the target.
The missile uses a fragmentation warhead with a proximity fuse from RDM (Rheinmetall Denel Munition) as well as an electronic safety and arm device which prevents the warhead detonating prematurely, as well as actuators and other items coming from RDM in South Africa.
Denel Dynamics in 2006 began development of the A-Darter in collaboration with Brazil. Deliveries supposed to have been completed by the end of 2017 but development was only completed in November 2019.
At present, manufacturing will be done in South Africa for SAAF Gripen C/Ds. There was an attempt to get the A-Darter qualified on the new SAAB Gripen E, which Brazil has acquired. This was initially unsuccessful but Denel has apparently revived plans to get the missile integrated onto the E model, and integrate the A-Darter onto the Hawk Mk 120.
Since the retirement of the R-Darter, the SAAF does not have a beyond visual range air-to-air missile. This could be rectified by the Denel Dynamics Marlin, now known as the Joint Strike Missile. This is a multi-role radar-guided beyond visual range (BVR) air-to-air and surface-to-air system. The demonstrator has already been tested, at the Overberg Test Range, with “global and local demand,” according to Denel.
The Joint Strike Missile will, Denel told Parliament, be developed for both ground- and ship-launch (Umkhonto-R) and for air-launch (R-Darter or Marlin). It will also be an integral part of a wider ground-based air defence system (GBADS) solution for the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).
Republished with permission of defenceWeb.
