S. Africa steps up weapons sale drive

Press, 13 September 1982, Page 8

S. Africa steps up weapons sale drive

NZPA-Reuter Pretoria. South Africa South Africa has stepped up an arms export drive by unveiling its second new weapon in three days, a selfpropelled 155 mm gun hailed as a world beater. The Defence Minister. Mr Magnus Malan. described the South African-designed howitzer as the "most sophisticated weapon system made in the world" at a champagne press showing on a test site outside Pretoria yesterday. Commandant Piet Marais, chairman of the State-owned armaments company Armscor. said that the G 6 gun represented a new era in artillery warfare. He said that the G 6. with a range of up to 40km, was an independent fighting unit which could be made ready to fire within 60 seconds of stopping, and leave 30 seconds after it had finished. On Thursday journalists were shown a new verison of the Oliphant tank. The demonstrations by Armscor came after an announcement earlier last week that South Africa wanted to expand its arms exports to SUSI3O million (SNZI7B million) a year from the current SUS 9 million (SNZI2.3 million). “We are entering the export market in an aggressive fashion." said Commandant Marais. He said that South Africa was prepared to sell arms to any non-Communist country which was not opposed to the white-ruled republic. South Africa, denied arms by the rest of the world under United Nations sanctions. has developed its own sophisticated arms industry’.