Saab to open Gripen Fighter Weapon School in South Africa

Saab is to invest in an advanced training centre for experienced fighter pilots - initially from Gripen countries and its user air forces - at Air Force Base Overberg in the southern Cape.
 
The Gripen Fighter Weapon School is an initiative from Saab in co-operation with the Gripen air forces user group, the Swedish defence company says in a statement. No cost was disclosed. "The Gripen Fighter Weapon School will hone the fighting skills of experienced Gripen pilots from all over the world. The custom built facilities on the southern tip of Africa will provide exceptional training with extensive airspace over mountain ranges, desserts and the Indian and Atlantic Oceans," Saab adds.
 
The course will be run during the South African summer "which offers favourable metrological conditions." The training will focus on different multirole aspects every year and the advanced airborne exercises will be mixed with academia and survival training in an African context.
 
"Gripen is now operative and in service in five countries worldwide and the system is continually under development," says Magnus Lewis-Olsson, President Saab in South Africa. Explaining the reasoning behind establishing the school now, Lewis-Olsson says: "Saab now believes there is a need to establish an advanced training centre for experienced Gripen pilots with the aim to increase their operational capabilities, provide an opportunity to operate in an environment different from their own and a chance to train in a region that mirrors a realistic future potential deployment scenario."
 
The former Gripen test pilot adds: "The Gripen Fighter Weapon School will increase our understanding between different Gripen operators and our own efforts to create a common software baseline as the pilots will cross reference their experience of Gripen."
 
Supporting Gripen customers in Sweden, South Africa, Hungarian, Czech and Thailand, the first course is scheduled to take place late 2013. New threat scenarios and new requirements will drive the course syllabus at the school and the need for more in depth training on the Gripen aircraft and its systems. It will also increase the students' operational capabilities by providing a possibility to experience a tactical behavior that differs from their national SOP's (Standard Operating Procedures) and thereby broaden their skill.

Source: defenceWeb

Additional information from Aviation Week of 9 July:

Gripen Fighter Weapons School for South Africa

 Robert Howson

Saab and the South African Air Force (SAAF) plan to open a new fighter weapons school in South Africa before the end of next year. Known provisionally as the Gripen Fighter Weapons School (GFWS), the center will be located at AFB Overberg, home to the SAAF's test and development community.

The huge Overberg range facility offers an unre­stricted training environment of the kind that does not exist outside the United States. The GFWS will be a venue for the six-nation Gripen User Group to train pilots in specialist weapons and tactics. It will be a shop window for prospec­tive customers and an important part of the sales package for future Gripen users. Ultimately, the GFWS could even serve as the conversion base for new operators.

Saab says its strategy is to establish an advanced training center for experienced Gripen pilots where they can improve their abilities, operate in an environment very different from their own and train in a region that mirrors a realistic future potential deployment scenario.

Magnus Lewis-Olsson, president, Sub South Africa (and former Gripen test pilot), told ShowNews, "We arc planning a two-month course that deals with a different topic each year. It's not a Red Flag-scale operation with a mass of 20 sorties flying a particular scenario - the focus will be on one key a, low-level reconnaissance, gunnery, or long-range strike, for example. The GFWS will teach the skills you need before you go on a major exercise - or into combat In a few years we'll get into more advanced air-to-air training with some sort of aggressor aircraft, a supersonic aircraft." The Gripen Fighter Weapons school will be backed by Saab, in what is described as a "mul­timillion-dollar investment" by the company. A purpose-built flight center will be established at Overberg, with simulators, crew training facilities, gyms and all the necessary amenities. Aircraft assets will be provided by the SAAF, with a senior SAAF officer in charge of day-today operations. South African industry will also have a role in running the venture.

Says Lewis-0Isson, "We have been working on this project since 2008 and hope to have all the agreements signed before the end of this year. The Gripen User Group has embraced the con­cept and wants it to succeed. Our target is to run the first course for six or seven students in Octo­ber 2013. Soon we hope to run two courses a year and other short curses as well. There are capa­bilities here in South Africa that just don't exist in Europe - EW equipment, SAMs, they have almost everything. The exercise area is immense. You can fly as far as the South Pole if you want and there is a bombing range 3 minutes' flight from the airfield. If the GFWS is a success, we could go from six or seven pilots up to 20. We could also offer the facilities for other uses - the NATO Tactical Leadership Program, for instance." Lewis-Olsson adds that while the "school is for fighter pilots, to facilitate this training we need technicians, fighter controllers, threat operators, etc. There will be many opportunities to train personnel other than pilots at the GFWS."