SAAF to make a Lion Effort
Date: 4 October 2011
The four SAAB Gripen C headed for South Africa will be the last to land at the Cape for a while, with the last four Gripen single-seaters being retained in Sweden to take part in Exercise Lion Effort next year.
Lion Effort, scheduled for April/May, is a major Swedish Air Force exercise held every two years. Next year's edition should see several Gripen operators taking part. Other than SA and Sweden, Gripen operators include Thailand, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
Four Gripen C single-seat fighters were loaded aboard the cargo vessel Achtergracht (registered in Amsterdam) at the port of Norrkoping in Sweden on September 1. Although due in Cape Town on 23 September, the Achtergracht blew a turbo charger and is now travelling at only four knots, compared to her average speed of 14.9 knots.
The original Gripen order, placed in 1999 as part of the new defence equipment package, was for nine Gripen D dual-seat and 19 Gripen C single-seat aircraft at a cost of R19.908 billion. However, the order was revised in 2005 to nine dual-seat and seventeen single-seat aircraft.
Armscor, the South African arms procurement agency, is responsible for the delivery of the aircraft to South Africa once they have been handed over by the aircraft manufacturer, SAAB, in Sweden. All nine dual-seat Gripen D aircraft have already been delivered, while nine of the Gripen C version are in SAAF service. The last four aircraft will be shipped to SA after Lion Effort.
Although still not an operational system, the SA Air Force's growing fleet of SAAB Gripen fighters conducted about half the 51 aircraft intercepts conducted during the 2010 soccer World Cup. The SAAF deployed 11 of 15 Gripen then available as well as 12 of 24 BAE Systems Hawk lead-in fighter trainers. Support and maintenance costs for the Gripen stand at R153 947 95.12 from June 2007 to date.
