Museveni says Uganda will scale up manufacturing own defence weapons

President Museveni has said the country is soon scaling up the manufacture of its own defence weapons for self -protection.

“We have started making our own defence weapons but we are going to expand and rely on ourselves to make weapons for our defence,” Museveni said on Friday as he addressed the nation on Labour day celebrations.

“How can you have a country that can’t defend itself?  Our ancestors used to make spears. Which continent are we that can’t defend themselves. We can also manufacture anti-riot equipment. We are going to make sure we double our efforts”

The president said the only remaining problem is lack of skills but urged parliament to support his proposal that will see scientists paid higher than others and these, he said would help the country achieve its dream.

Background

Uganda currently assembles its own armored military vehicles named Nyoka, a Kiswahili word for snake and these have been used in war areas like in South Sudan and Somalia and have been effective.

Tucked away in  Mayuge district, in the  Eastern part of the country at the UPDF Defence depot in Magamaga is the country’s armored military vehicle assembling plant.

The Ugandan army imports steel from Sweden which is then cut into pieces that are then used as armor put onto the body built through wielding and this is all done in their workshop at Magamaga before being painted and the Nyoka hits the road.

The first phase in 2012 produced ten pieces whereas in 2014 the same number of Nyoka armored military vehicles were produced by the Ugandan army.

Since the inception of the project in 2012, over 40  technicians have been trained in various fields including armor wielding ,general fitting and assembling, project management, electrical wiring and industrial design among other fields both locally and from outside the country.

President Museveni last month unveiled Uganda’s first prototype army truck designed for all terrain firefighting situations but can also be used for pest control with minimum human interface.

The tanker manufactured by the production arm of the  National Enterprises Corporation under the ‘All Terrain Fighting Project’ in Nakasongola district was thought out by the president who tasked the engineering section to develop a concept that combines army trucks with fire and pest control mechanism on all terrains.

Using the military BMP design military personnel career, the tanker assembled at Luwero Industries in Nakasongola is mounted with water tanks and firefighting equipment that are self-cooling internally.

The machine is designed to minimize the use of human firefighters and reduce human deaths and as opposed to rubber tyres, the truck uses a chain link.

The truck is mounted with water tanks and pipes which can spray 12 meters in different directions. It can also unmount the water tank and fit in fire-fighting equipment to put off fire of any magnitude.