The South African National Defence Force's lack of funds to put new hardware acquired under the arms deal into use highlights the government's lack of understanding on how to run an efficient defence force, according to military analyst Helmoed-Romer Heitman.

He was commenting on an official's statement to a parliamentary committee that the SANDF needed R120 million to make the weapons operational.

Antonie Visser, chief director for strategic management, told MPs that the Department of Defence had classified the problem as a "critical risk". He also said the department lacked staff who had the technical knowledge to operate the new systems.

The DA said these statements vindicated the party's view that the arms procurement package "was a recipe for disaster".

It also served as a serious warning to the government about the viability of its spending R8 billion to R14bn on procuring highly sophisticated Airbus military transport aircraft, the DA said.

Rejecting this, the ANC said the arms deal had been "thoroughly considered by parliament and the executive".

Heitman said the problems and lack of resources referred to by Visser also highlighted the government's lack of long-term planning. The SANDF's financial problems were critical to its long-term operations because if it had "no money, its skills will erode quickly as it won't have budgets for training".

Another problem was the failure to understand that the finance for running and maintaining the new equipment should not come from the defence force's budget.

"If it does, (the SANDF) should be refunded by the national treasury because the arms procurement is costly to maintain," Heitman said.

There was a need to revisit how the defence force's budget was being used.

DA defence spokesman Rafeek Shah said the department's inability to foresee the problem would affect its budget, which was overstretched.

"These problems will only be exacerbated by the defence force's lack of skilled members."

Pressed for details about the problems, Visser said they related only to the navy's corvettes, but he could not be specific because these were matters of strategic security. If the money was not forthcoming, operations could be reprioritised to meet the need for R120m.

With acknowledgements to Thokozani Mtshali and the Cape Times.