BAE Systems Land Systems South Africa
Encyclopedia
BAE Systems Land and Armaments
BAE Systems Land & Armaments is a subsidiary of BAE Systems Inc. and is responsible for the design, development and production of combat vehicles, ammunition, artillery systems, naval guns and missile launchers. It is the largest such company in the world...
. BAE owns 75% of the company, DGD Technologies owns the remaining 25%.
Land Systems South Africa is organised into three divisions: Land Systems OMC, Land Systems Gear Ratio, and Land Systems Dynamics.
Land Systems OMC
Land Systems OMC is South Africa's primary military vehicle manufacturing company. OMC is the initialism under which the Olifant Manufacturing Company was most commonly known during its existence. It was established for the task of creating the Olifant tankCenturion tank
The Centurion, introduced in 1945, was the primary British main battle tank of the post-World War II period. It was a successful tank design, with upgrades, for many decades...
for the South African Army
South African Army
The South African Army is the army of South Africa, first formed after the Union of South Africa was created in 1910.The South African military evolved within the tradition of frontier warfare fought by commando forces, reinforced by the Afrikaners' historical distrust of large standing armies...
.
Early into its life it was taken over by Reunert, which subsequently turned it into a division called Reumech OMC. It was under this name that OMC saw its most prolific level of vehicle development, as the SA Army's involvement in the Border War in Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
created a massive need for ever more advanced and capable vehicles.
Following South Africa's readmittance to the international arena following democratic elections in 1994, a number of foreign defence industry companies expressed significant interest in purchasing the company. In 1999 Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's Vickers
Vickers plc
Vickers plc was the remainder of Vickers-Armstrongs after the nationalisation of three of its four operating groups: aviation , shipbuilding and steel...
purchased the company and renamed it Vickers OMC. This continued until Alvis plc
Alvis plc
Alvis Ltd. was created when United Scientific Holdings plc acquired the Alvis division of the nationalised vehicle manufacturer British Leyland in 1981. United Scientific maintained its own name until 1992 when the group was renamed Alvis plc. Alvis acquired Swedish armoured vehicle manufacturer...
, also of Britain, purchased Vickers' defence division, including OMC. Alvis renamed the company to Alvis OMC.
The most recent chapter in the company's history was written in 2004, when BAE Systems
BAE Systems
BAE Systems plc is a British multinational defence, security and aerospace company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that has global interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. BAE is among the world's largest military contractors; in 2009 it was the...
purchased the military vehicle division of Alvis. OMC then became part of BAE Systems' Land Systems, again undergoing a name change to Land Systems OMC.