Army Recognition:
At the recent Heroes’ Day celebrations, Namibia revealed that it had acquired and is using FN-6 man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS) from China, defenceWeb reports. Pictures of this appeared in 2016.
It is not known how many launchers and missiles the country imported. However, defenceWeb noted the possibility that Namibia may have been the intended end-user of a batch of 50 FN-6 MANPADS imported to South Africa in 2016. South Africa’s report to the Arms Trade Treaty in 2016 included an import of the FN-6, but defenceWeb reported, “However, in response to a defenceWeb enquiry about the missiles, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) stated that, ‘the SANDF can confirm that there are no missiles imported from China in its possession.'”
African Defence Review’s Darren Olivier raised a similar question about whether the 50 FN-6s were transferred to Namibia. China has made a number of inroads in selling military equipment to countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Many of the region’s countries have procured armored vehicles, in particular, to support internal security missions.
