Paramount Aerospace Industries has added a new sensor to the counter-unmanned aerial systems (counter-UAS) configuration it unveiled for its Mwari multi-mission aircraft in July 2026, integrating ASELSAN’s ASELFLIR-500 electro-optical targeting turret onto the platform. Paramount announced the integration on 27 July 2026, with the Turkish sensor manufacturer confirming the partnership the following day. Neither company has stated that a Mwari has yet flown with the turret physically fitted, so the announcement should be read as confirming a completed integration rather than a flight-proven capability.
The move builds directly on the dedicated Mwari Counter-UAS configuration Paramount unveiled in July 2026, which combined airborne surveillance, target identification and a range of kinetic effector options to address the growing threat one-way attack drones pose to military installations, ports, energy infrastructure and border posts across Africa. That configuration built in turn on capability Paramount first announced in 2022, when the Mwari was equipped to hunt Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) drones at altitudes between 20,000 and 30,000 feet, a niche previously reachable only by expensive ground-based air defence systems or fighter jets.
What the ASELFLIR-500 Adds
The ASELFLIR-500 is a 15-inch electro-optical reconnaissance, surveillance and targeting turret built around a single 220-millimetre common aperture, a design ASELSAN says lets the system deliver the range performance of a larger 20-inch payload without the added size and weight. The turret combines a high-definition mid-wave infrared camera, an eight-megapixel day television channel and a high-definition short-wave infrared (SWIR) channel into that shared aperture, alongside a laser range finder and target designator rated to a range of up to 35 kilometres and coded to STANAG 3733, the NATO standard for laser designation compatibility. A four-axis gimbal paired with two-axis optical stabilisation keeps the sightline steady on a moving aerial target, a requirement that matters considerably more when tracking a small, fast, manoeuvring drone than when observing a stationary position on the ground.
Paramount has not disclosed which specific counter-UAS role the ASELFLIR-500 fills within the Mwari’s broader sensor and effector suite, though the specification points clearly toward the detection, identification and precision-engagement stages of the counter-drone mission rather than the initial wide-area search function, which the Mwari’s other configurable sensors and any networked ground-based radar would typically handle.
Paramount’s Case for the Partnership
Lee Connolly, Chief Executive Officer of Paramount Aerospace Industries, framed the addition as closing a gap between simply carrying a weapon and being able to reliably find a target worth engaging. Effective counter-UAS work, he said, depends on the ability to detect, identify, classify, track and engage small, fast-moving aerial targets with real speed and accuracy, and the new sensor gives Mwari a fuller version of that chain from a single aircraft. Connolly also pointed to a problem that many African defence forces face more acutely than better-resourced militaries: detecting a drone in the first place can be just as hard as shooting it down. “For many nations, the detection problem can be just as challenging as the defeat problem,” he said, arguing that Mwari’s open architecture lets Paramount tailor the aircraft to whatever air defence environment and threat profile a given customer already has, rather than selling a single fixed solution.
That open architecture is the mechanical reason the ASELFLIR-500 integration was possible without a redesign of the airframe. The Mwari’s Interchangeable Mission Systems Bay, a sensor and payload compartment in the belly of the aircraft, allows new pods, avionics and mission equipment to be swapped in and out in under two hours, a capability Paramount has used repeatedly since the Mwari’s commercial launch to add capabilities including an optionally piloted conversion kit from S-Plane and, now, a Turkish targeting turret, without requiring a new aircraft variant each time. Connolly described that adaptability as central to the platform’s long-term relevance. “The pace of innovation in unmanned systems is extraordinary,” he said, arguing that an airborne platform has to be able to evolve at a comparable pace if it is going to remain useful over decades of service.
An Established African Platform Gaining a Global Sensor
The Mwari itself is not a new or unproven aircraft. Originally developed as the Advanced High-Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft in a joint venture between Paramount Group and Aerosud, it first flew in July 2014 and has since been delivered to Mozambique, the launch customer, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which ordered six aircraft at the end of 2021. Mozambique’s fleet has accumulated flight hours over Cabo Delgado province, where government forces have fought an Islamic State-linked insurgency since 2017, giving the platform a genuine African operational record rather than a purely promotional one. Paramount’s Eurosatory 2026 appearance in June drew continued interest from European NATO-member states weighing the Mwari as a cost-effective option for border surveillance and counter-insurgency work, a sign that the aircraft’s value proposition, meaningful capability at a fraction of the cost of dedicated fast jets or large surveillance drones, is finding an audience beyond the continent that shaped its original design brief.
The ASELFLIR-500 integration fits a pattern that has become increasingly common in African and Gulf-adjacent defence manufacturing: rather than each supplier building a complete, closed system, airframe manufacturers such as Paramount are positioning their platforms as open hosts for the best available sensors, weapons and communications equipment from partners around the world. For African militaries facing an accelerating one-way attack drone threat, from Nigeria’s northeast to Mali’s contested airspace, the practical question this integration raises is less about the ASELFLIR-500’s technical merits, which are well documented on far larger and better-funded programmes such as Turkey’s Bayraktar TB3 and the TCG Anadolu amphibious assault ship, and more about whether Paramount can get a flight-tested version of this configuration into African hands at a price point its core customer base can sustain.