[1] The design study examined a fixed-wing aircraft as an affordable platform for both civilian and military applications as an alternative to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

[2] It had been conceived as an affordable intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and light-strike platform, for which the developers had identified an increasing level of market demand for such an aircraft.

[7] According to aviation author Bill Sweetman, the Ahrlac is likely to come at least partially into competition with the Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano and the Beechcraft T-6 Texan II; unlike either of those aircraft, it does not have any trainer heritage and thus is shaped distinctly differently, being more specialised to its low-intensity warfare role.

[3] In May 2014, the flight test program commenced at Wonderboom Airport near Pretoria, the first prototype having been moved there from Aerosud's facility in Centurion, Gauteng.

[13] According to Paramount, several prospective customers had shown interest in the aircraft, particularly from the Middle East; the construction of the second prototype was also underway and had been proceeding smoothly so far.

[13] By September 2016, the prototype had accumulated 250 flying hours during tests, as well as a total of four deployments to the South African border and to neighbouring Botswana for the purpose of operationally representative trials.

[14] The Wonderboom factory is to be capable of producing up to two aircraft per month; it is reportedly readily expandable to double its current size, dependent on customer demand.

[15] The Mwari UAV is considerably smaller than the manned Ahrlac counterpart, possessing a reduced flight endurance of only 4 hours along with a sensor turret in the nose.

In March 2016, American aerospace firm Boeing announced that it had entered into a development partnership with Paramount with the aim of producing a militarized version of the Ahrlac.

[20] In May 2020, BRONCO II, Paramount Group's Americanized variant of the AHRLAC, in partnership with Leidos and Vertex Aerospace, offered the light attack and surveillance aircraft to U.S. Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, for its Armed Overwatch program.

[23] In August 2019, a business rescue plan was announced for AHRLAC, with Paramount taking full control of the Aerospace Development Corporation (ADC) and its subsidiaries, according to the proposition.

[8] It is powered by a single Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A turboprop engine; it has a top speed of 310 mph, roughly double that of most helicopters and similar to larger military UAVs such as the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper, along with a flight endurance of seven hours.

[28][19] The aircraft overall is claimed to be inexpensive and easy to manufacture, AHRLAC's CEO, Dr Paul Potgieter, has contrasted the ease of assembly to that of a Meccano set.

[1][8] Additionally, it is fitted with either four or six hardpoints for carrying weapons mounted under the wings, including rocket pods, unguided bombs, and various air-to-surface and air-to-air missiles.