Proven in African operations, these capabilities give governments both rapid interdiction and sustained presence. By linking advanced platforms with training, sustainment and local industry, Paramount enables states to secure trade corridors, protect border communities and enforce sovereign control.
The Border Security Challenge
Border security is one of the defining challenges facing Africa. Ungoverned crossing points are exploited by traffickers, insurgents, armed groups and criminal networks. Weapons flow south from Libya into the Sahel, Boko Haram and ISWAP fighters move across the Lake Chad Basin, and militants in Mozambique exploit unpatrolled coastlines to reinforce their ranks. Sovereignty depends on the ability to control these frontiers.
Meeting this challenge requires more than ad hoc patrols or isolated technologies. It requires a layered defence-in-depth: mobility to cover distance, surveillance to detect threats, hardened presence to hold ground, and fused intelligence to drive rapid action.
With more than three decades of experience, the South African-founded defence company Paramount has placed itself at the centre of this mission. Its integrated border-security system combines land platforms, airborne ISR, forward operating infrastructure and deployable Fusion Cells. This is an African-designed capability already employed in live operations.
On Land: Mobility, Protection and Adaptability
Paramount’s vehicles form the backbone of its border-security offering. They are designed for African realities: long distances, poor roads and constant exposure to asymmetric threats.
The Mbombe 4 is the flagship. Produced in South Africa, India and Europe, it employs a flat mine-protected floor that lowers the centre of gravity and improves stability on broken terrain, while delivering STANAG 4569 Level 4a/4b blast protection. In tactical terms, this provides greater firing accuracy on the move and improved survivability against mines and IEDs. Its burst speed enables rapid interdiction of smuggling convoys, giving commanders a decisive edge in pursuit operations.
The Mbombe 4 is operational with the United Arab Emirates, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Togo, and India, where it is manufactured under licence as the Kalyani M4. It carries a full border patrol section, accepts both NATO and Eastern-standard weapons, and its commercial drivetrain simplifies sustainment, a critical advantage for militaries operating with stretched logistics.
Lighter options include the Maatla and Maatla L, optimised for border patrol and policing. Built on a commercial chassis, they are easy to maintain and feature a reconfigurable “Smart Floor” that allows rapid conversion between troop carrier, command post or ambulance. Both Ghana and the DRC have adopted the platform. At the heavier end, the Marauder provides convoy escort, checkpoint defence and troop transport, giving commanders scalable options for volatile frontier zones.
Eyes in the Sky: Sensors, Platforms and Tactical Effects
Paramount’s air component begins with the Mwari, a light ISR aircraft that provides persistent surveillance at low cost-per-flight hour. Designed for austere environments, it bridges the gap between ground patrols and theatre-wide reconnaissance. In Mozambique, Mwari flights have been used to link maritime approaches to inland movement, cueing ground and maritime forces for interception at choke points. This persistent ISR has shifted operations from reactive to proactive, allowing security forces to shape insurgent movement rather than chase it.
Complementing the Mwari, the N-Raven provides commanders with the option to take immediate action when hostile activity is confirmed. Its ability to deliver real-time imagery and precision strike means that interdiction can occur without delay, a lesson reinforced in Nagorno-Karabakh, where pairing ISR and fires proved decisive in dismantling enemy logistics nodes and disrupting supply chains.
Paramount’s air component is a layered capability rather than separate platforms. Small tactical UAS like the X10-D provide the close-in view to find and identify targets along smuggling routes or at river crossings, while medium endurance systems such as the Vulture hold station to track targets for longer and pass them to ground forces. For persistence over wide areas Goshawk and Goshawk XL deliver the endurance needed to watch key corridors or maritime approaches for hours.
At the tactical level, the high-resolution EO and thermal channels on the X10-D have proven effective in confirming targets before a quick reaction force is deployed. This is critical for precision: in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, failures to positively identify targets led to wasted strikes, while forces that paired ISR with rapid fires broke enemy supply chains with minimal ground commitment.
Over time, these flights generate a library of imagery that supports pattern-of-life analysis, enabling intelligence staff to anticipate future crossings and refine the placement of Forward Operating Bases (FOB) and Patrol Bases (PB). This turns individual missions into a campaign-level advantage.
Detection and defeat of hostile drones is part of the same system. Mobile detection systems give early warning by tracking RF emissions, and the PJ10 jammer provides a non-kinetic option to disrupt hostile control links or navigation. This layered approach has been used effectively to protect convoys and FOBs in hybrid conflicts where FPV drones are used for reconnaissance or attack.
Anchoring the Border: Forward Operating Bases
Mobility must be reinforced by presence. Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) provide that anchor, projecting security forces into contested areas and allowing them to hold ground. Paramount’s FOBs are modular, scalable hubs that combine accommodation, logistics and operations under hardened protection. Facilities can include administration blocks, workshops, armouries, medical stations and secure communications. Properly configured, they function as combat service support nodes, enabling forces to dominate ground that would otherwise remain ungoverned.
FOBs are built with Border Defence in mind: counter-IED perimeters, layered access control and watch towers are incorporated as standard. By anchoring patrols with secure staging points, they deny adversaries the ability to exploit seams in coverage and enable forces to remain forward-deployed for extended periods.
Fusion Cells: Intelligence Integration for Rapid Action
Border threats evolve quickly. Smuggling networks adjust routes in hours. Insurgents exploit gaps between police, military and intelligence agencies. Conventional command structures are too slow to respond.
aramount’s Fusion Cells are built to close that gap. These deployable command and intelligence nodes integrate ISR feeds, HUMINT, signals intercepts and patrol reports into a single operational picture. The effect is to shorten the sensor-to-shooter loop, a core requirement in counter-insurgency and border interdiction operations. In Ukraine, thousands of hours of drone footage were only turned into combat power once they were centralised, tagged, and matched with artillery and strike assets.
Paramount’s Fusion Cells replicate this principle for border security: they turn multiple sensor feeds into a single operational picture, prioritise threats, and give commanders the information needed to act before smugglers or insurgents can disperse.
Fusion Cells also break down silos. They create shared situational awareness across border police, armed forces and partner agencies, enabling coordinated action. Designed for interoperability with national systems, they can support national and regional operations alike, from sovereign missions to ECOWAS or MNJTF deployments.
An Integrated Solution, Tailored for Africa
The strength of Paramount’s system lies in integration. Land mobility, aerial surveillance, hardened presence and fused intelligence combine to deliver a layered, adaptable border-security architecture. Governments gain both rapid interdiction and sustained presence, rather than being forced to choose between them.
As Eric Ichikowitz, Senior Vice President of Paramount, notes: “As security threats become more sophisticated, Africa must embrace a technology-driven approach to border protection. Surveillance, intelligence-sharing and rapid response will be decisive in securing Africa’s frontiers and protecting national sovereignty.”
Paramount believes it delivers capability that lasts. Training pipelines, sustainment frameworks and partnerships with African governments ensure platforms generate operational effect over time. In a region where unsecured borders drive instability, Paramount provides governments with the means to secure trade corridors, protect frontier communities and enforce sovereign control.
