AN SA avionics firm has won a contract worth about R26m to produce 24 sets of the so-called black box crash recording devices for BAE Systems' new Hawk trainer fighters.

The Hawk will replace the SA Air Force's Impala trainers, in use since the 1960s and now declared obsolete.

The contract forms part of the defence offset programme for SA's R43bn arms deal and has the potential to open up doors for SA's manufacturers in the global aerospace market, according to the signatories.

Aerospace Monitoring Systems, the firm which won the contract, said yesterday the SAdesigned flight safety system known as the health usage monitoring system, was already on the international market.

Stuart McIntyre, BAE Systems' executive director for SA, said the SA flight safety system was being delivered to the Royal Australian Air Force and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation training centre in Canada.

The flight safety system was operating on more than 50 aircraft in service with the two institutions, McIntyre said.

The system came with a ground-based information analysis system and captured cockpit voice, flight data and engine life for the lead-in fighter trainers, the firms' executives said.

McIntyre said the Gripen would have a similar device built for it; the specific product announced yesterday related only to the Hawk fighter trainer.

Aerospace Monitoring Systems MD Christo Weder said about R10m had been spent on system improvements to ensure compatibility with the new Rolls-Royce Adour engine that will equip SA's Hawk fleet.  

With acknowledgement to Bonile Ngqiyaza and Business Day.