The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is not about to let go of the services of its almost 30 year old assault rifles R4 and R5 following the force’s decision to spend about R30 million on the maintenance, repair and modification of its old stock.

State arms acquisition agency Armscor placed three orders totalling worth R30.5m on Denel Land Systems Lyttelton recently to update the carbine holdings of the ageing R4 and R5 service rifles.

The R4 rifles are used by the SA Army, while the R5 carbine rifles are used by the SA Air Force, SA Navy and Military Health Service.

According to Leon Engelbrecht of Defenceweb, the R4 and R5 rifles are a licensed version of the Israeli Galil - itself based on the Finish Valmet m/62 – and were inspired by the AK47. These rifles are however a bit heavy and bulky but reliable, he says.

Their development started after the Arab-Israeli war of 1967 and production was underway by 1972. The weapon entered South African service in the early 1980s.

SANDF corporate communication director Brigadier General M.M. Visser said yesterday that the R4 and R5 rifles have proven to be “a reliable companion to many soldiers over the years”.

He said it was essential to maintain and repair the existing stock and the used rifles on continuous bases. “This is a normal maintenance and repair program by the industry over a three-year period.”

Asked why the SANDF was not interested in finding modern rifles, Visser said rifle technology was not “improving rapidly” and therefore many Defence Forces around the world were retaining their weapon systems for a very long time.

He said the SANDF also trusted that the local industry would be capable of manufacturing new rifle technology should they were required to do so.

Visser conceded that the Department of Defence and Armscor were currently “investigating options to replace the said rifles in the future”. However, he was not forth coming with the details of what nature the future rifle weaponry for the SANDF could look like, saying that no information would be revealed “before the investigations are completed”.

The SA Army is also spending about R3.4 million to upgrade its stock of Milkor Y2 multiple grenade launchers (MGL). It has been using an early variant of the Milkor the six-shot grenade revolver since the mid-1980s. More than 30 000 of the Multiple Grenade Launcher systems designed and manufactured by the SA based Milkor are used in more than 30 countries worldwide.

In addition, Armscor has contracted Republic Arms of Jeppestown, Johannesburg, to maintain an undisclosed number of 12 Gauge Beretta RS202P shotguns. These were designed for use by law enforcement agencies. However, it is not clear whether the weapons are from defence, police or prison service stocks.

With acknowledgements to Hopewell Radebe and Business Day.

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The R4 is not a bad rifle, but nor was the R1.

Of course there are much more modern combat rifles, especially one's with a sighting system that allows a normal troop to hit anything at a distance greater than 10 metres.

Then again in our segment, who would be able to look after it, not break it, lose it or steal it?

But the fact is that a R30 million SANDF spend over 3 years is a major story.

At the same time there are about a dozen major multi-billion Rand projects that have been on the cards for a decade and still awaiting approval.

The SANDF can't do it and neither can Armscor.

Two lame duck ministers of defence and nothing gets done.

Joe Modise was no quite so lame when he came to getting Defence Reviews, Force Designs and Strategic Defence Acquisitions approved, but then he had his own agenda.

Lining his pockets, those of his advisors, friends and benefactors, as well as the ANC.

One for me, one for yee and one for the Ayenceeeeeeee.

Since then we've watched the MoD and DoD like Hawks.