SA Air Force grounded by funding crisis

A funding crisis and financial meltdown at state arms manufacturer Denel has left the SA Air Force (SAAF) no longer able to function – crippling key capabilities, including air defence, air policing, close air support, airlift, maritime patrol and aerial reconnaissance.

Not only is the SAAF unable to provide aerial naval support, the situation is so dire that the Air Force has been rendered not combat ready and vulnerable to attack, which experts have described as catastrophic.

Of the SAAF’s 24 Hawk Lead-In Fighter Trainer jets, only three are serviceable, while three are beyond economical repair and 12 are in long-term storage.

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The Hawk Lead-in Fighter Trainers are operated by the SAAF’s 85 Combat Flying School at Air Force Base Makhado, where they are used for training Gripen pilots and weapons officers.

Sorry state of affairs

This sorry state of affairs has resulted in new pilots not being trained and current pilots without the required flying hours to remain qualified.

Only 46 of the entire SA Air Force’s 217 aircraft are currently serviceable. None of the 26 Gripen fighter jets are airworthy, with two beyond economical repair and 11 in long-term storage.

This week the chief of SAAF, Lieutenant-General Wiseman Mbambo, told the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans that the air force could only be as powerful and combat ready based on the number of hours they could fly.

“The situation within the SAAF is not where it is supposed to be in terms of combat readiness… also the hours of flight,” he said.

Mbambo lamented that, due to the challenges, they were currently flying about 5,000 hours a year, which he said was below the required number of hours required.

“We still need platforms supporting the SA Navy. We know it is important to have an eye in the sky as far as the maritime patrol is concerned. Many things are happening on our shores and we do not have the required capability to monitor that… The current capability that we have in the air transport for maritime is more than 60 years old and we cannot hope to patrol properly and have a deterrent if we have such a weak capability,” he said.

The biggest concern, Mbambo said, was Denel. As the original equipment manufacturer for most of their aircraft systems – especially in the helicopter capability – the collapse of the state arms manufacturer put more strain and risk on the SAAF.

SAAF vulnerable for attack

The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Kobus Marais was overwhelmed by the revelations, saying it was a sad “because it shows [that] we are so vulnerable for any onslaught by anybody and it seems like our capability is just gone… that is what we feared in the past, that we will reduce our Air Force to an aircraft wing…”

According to military expert Helmoed-Römer Heitman, the situation has been allowed to deteriorate so far that it will now be costly to undo the damage – much more than maintaining aircraft would have cost.

“It is a catastrophic situation. Not only do we not have key capabilities – air defence, air policing, close air support, airlift, maritime patrol and aerial reconnaissance – with almost no training aircraft operational, the SAAF also cannot train new pilots and keep others current. I can see pilots and technical staff leaving the SAAF,” Heitman said.

He said the Navy and Army face the same challenges, including that the Army has too few troops to meet all of its responsibilities.

Budget at heart of the crisis

Dean Wingrin, aviation expert at DefenceWeb, said the budgets of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) and the SAAF have been declining in real terms for the past two decades.

He said while the air defence budget for 2020/21 was R54.2 billion, the 2021/22 budget has been decreased by more than R1.5 billion, while still being required to maintain the same output and flying hours.

The budget for the following two financial years in nominal terms have been forecast to be even less than the current budget, Wingrin said.

“Of concern is the apparent lack of training capacity for student pilots. This has negative repercussions through the pilot development systems, leaving a skill and experience gap for the next 20 years as it slows aircrew progression and command time,” Wingrin said.

SAAF spokesperson Brig-Gen Mongezi Kweta is yet to respond to questions on what the pilots for all the grounded aircraft are doing with their time, what happens to pilots when they do not achieve their required flying hours and the cost of recertification.

Deadly gamble

SANDF Corporal Tebogo Radebe was killed in combat while deployed at the current regional offensive against Islamist insurgents in Mozambique. His death was blamed on inadequate asset deployment.

The 31-year-old soldier was part of the SA Army’s elite Special Forces and died in a firefight with insurgents during an ambush near Chai village in Cabo Delgado.

The SA National Defence Union (Sandu) has lamented that the deployment of SANDF troops in Mozambique continued without any air combat support, such as attack helicopters or fighter aircraft.

Sandu’s general secretary Pikkie Greeff said this was regrettable as it was potentially a game changer for SA in this operation.

Marais, a DA member of the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans, said that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the SA government must take full responsibility for Radebe’s death.

He said that Rooivalk helicopters and Gripen fighter jets should have been on standby to provide air support, charging that SADC must either properly prepare and support troops that are deployed or get the soldiers out of Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado war zones.

– siphom@citizen.co.za