South Africa's new Gripen jet fighter will make its public debut at the continent's foremost exhibition, where civilian and military manufacturers show off their latest hi-tech toys from the aerospace, maritime and defence industries.

Africa Aerospace and Defence 2006 takes place in September, and moves to Cape Town for the first time as the former site, Waterkloof air base in Pretoria, was being re-evaluated.

"By raising the profile of the commercial sector, AAD 2006 will, in our view, help enormously to bridge the artificial divide between defence and non-defence," said Ian Phillips, special advisor to Transport Minister Jeff Radebe at the exhibition's official launch yesterday.

Phillips, delivering Radebe's speech, said the defence and commercial aviation sectors were linked in terms of shared impact of research and development in the aviation industry, airports and support services.

"In the African context, where budgets are tight and the need is colossal, innovation and technology development that seeks to get as much bang out of each buck as possible is a strong asset that must be encouraged and maintained," Phillips said.

He added that the South African defence technology and manufacturing sector was a vibrant, at times "beleaguered", partner in the country's economic development.

Show director Oliver Stratford said a measure of the show's success would be topping figures set at the last exhibition, held in Pretoria two years ago.

At this exhibition, which is held every two years, the direct impact on Pretoria's GDP was slightly more than R151 million and the creation of about 1 000 jobs.

Commenting on how the changing face of conventional warfare was affecting exhibitions of the sort to be held at Ysterplaat air base, SA Air Force General Robert King said exhibitors were aware of this.

"Bear in mind, we don't focus on specific items that are being displayed. AAD merely provides the stage where you bring the exhibitor and the potential client together. So, the initiative lies with the exhibitor," said King.

Besides new missiles, helmet-mounted sights and other military hardware, projects that could be launched include an innovative South African-designed mobile runway lighting system and unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs).

"This is a growing sector, especially in the African market because it's a more cost effective way of doing surveillance of your country than having manned flights," said the exhibition's Geoff van Hees.

Hundreds of exhibitors were expected to attend this year's show, which would for the first time also include displays from the People's Republic of China and Turkey.

Linden Burns of Airbus said there would be a large stand for the A400M military transport aircraft, which formed the cornerstone of South Africa's new strategic aerospace industry.

"Just last week, the first South African-manufactured component of the aircraft, the fuselage topshell or roof, was sent to Germany," said Burns.

With acknowledgement to Sapa and Cape Argus.