Publication: Cape Argus Issued: Date: 2008-08-16 Reporter:

Gripens Arrive Mired in Controversy

 

Publication 

Cape Argus
Date

2008-08-16

Web Link

www.capeargus.co.za

 

As South Africa's latest military acquisitions arrive, bolstering the number of fighter jets in the country to four, the multi-billion rand arms deal continues to be embroiled in financial controversy.

The latest two Gripen fighter jets touched down in South Africa this week when they arrived in Cape Town harbour on Wednesday before being flown to Air Force Base Makhado in Limpopo where they are to be permanently stationed.

As part of the country's 1999 Strategic Defence Procurement programme, South Africa purchased, among others, 26 Gripen fighter jets and 24 Hawk lead-in-fighter trainers.

The Gripens, nine dual-seaters and 17 single-seaters, have replaced South Africa's ageing Cheetah fighter jet force *1 while the Hawks have replaced the Impala jet trainers.

The defence ministry, in reply to parliamentary questions, admitted that the budget allocated for the operating costs of the Hawk and the Gripen for the 2008/2009 financial year fell short by more than R75-million.

To operate the Hawks and the Gripens the air force requires R254,4-million, but to date it has only received R178,5-million.

The operating costs include those of operating the squadrons, fuel, maintenance, repair, ammunition and survival requirements.

Added to this is the fact that of the 243 air and ground crew positions available for the aircraft programs, only 149 have been filled, with the Gripen programme being the worst affected.

Twelve of its 19 pilot posts are vacant as are nearly half of its 111 ground crew positions.

The admission comes a week after the South African Air Force (SAAF) admitted that a cash crisis had forced it to decommission the Cheetah fighter jets four years too early, rendering the air force nearly powerless to defend the country from an aerial attack.

SAAF chief Lieutenant-General Carlos Gagiano last week said that because of funding "we had to close the Cheetah programme so that we could start the Gripen programme".

"The bottom line is that our funding dose not allow two systems to be operated simultaneous," he said.

Attempting to allay fears, Gripen spokesperson Linden Birns said that the remaining Gripens would continue to arrive between now and 2012.

"The next Gripen is set to arrive later this year followed by the rest which will continue to arrive up until 2012," he said, adding that the delivery process was on track.

Birns said the modern Gripen C and D fighter aircraft would enable the SAAF to simultaneously downsize its fighter inventory while maintaining its full operational capability for national defence and regional peace missions.

    * This article was originally published on page 2 of The Pretoria News on August 16, 2008

With acknowledgements to Cape Argus.


*1       Nonsense, how could the Gripens have replaced South Africa's "ageing" *2 Cheetah fighter jet force when the first arrived in May 2008 and the latest three between May and August 2008.

The Cheetah C, of which there are or were 38 in number, will remain the SAAF's frontline jet fighter until 2012. The Gripens will be phased in by 2015 when they will take over as the SAAF's frontline jet fighter.

The SAAF could easily have spent another billion of so Rand and kept the Cheetah Cs going until 2020, without spending R20 billion (2008 Rand) on the Gripens.

A new jet fighter was certainly required at some time in the future, but its acquisition did not need to commence in 1997, the very same year that the 38 Cheetah Cs went into Serve at Air Force Base Hoedspruit.


*2      We all age, all equipment ages - it's just when it's aged substantially that equipment needs to be replaced.

The Cheetah Cs can be said to be middle aged, about 11 to 15 years old.

With very little flying time and reasonable maintenance these aircraft could easily be kept in service for 20 years and with one or two in-life upgrades they could have been kept in service for 30 years.

The US Air Force operated the F4 Phantom from 1960 to 1996, that's 36 years and these aircraft fought in both the Vietnam War and First Iraq War. And the Americans can afforded to bring our new jet fighters on a regular basis (F14, F15, F16, F/A18, F22 and F35 in the last 35 years).

The F-15E Strike Eagle entered service in 1989 and the US Air Force plans to keep it in service until 2025, that's also 36 years and these aircraft fought in both First and Second Iraq War.

Now that we are decommissioning the Cheetah Cs, countries like Brazil will be here in a shot to pick up a real bargain of some 38 Cheetah Cs, plus spare parts for a couple of billion Rand, spend another bit and then operate them for the next 10 to 20 years.

And all of this proves that Pinnoccio Erwin and Pinnoccio Mbeki were and are still lying when they say that the Arms Deal was about purchasing the equipment that the SAAF really needed and the country really needed to increase its strategic force projection capability.

Chippy Shaik on the other hand was being quite open and frank at the early 1999 suppliers' briefing when he told all and sundry that "the government was not interested in the equipment itself only in the countertrade.

He was not quite that open when he failed to advise that he and his bosses and colleagues and brothers and accountants and friends were more interested in their own private countertrade with the likes of Thomson-CSF, British Aerospace, Thyssen and Ferrostaal.