No money for pilots

By Graeme hoskin

Budgetary allocations for the crucial training of air force pilots and navigators have been frozen - but the government plans to splurge billions on a VVIP aircraft for President Jacob Zuma.

The purchase is planned despite the Inkwazi presidential jet, a Boeing thatrecently underwent maintenance, having flown for only 542 hours.

The SA Air Force budget has, according to the Defence Department's 2013 strategic statement, shrunk by an estimated R1.4-billion this financial year.

As a result, said DA MP David Maynier, the number of flying hours that air force pilots can log has been greatly reduced.

There has also been a drastic cut in helicopter capabilities.

"In the 2012-2013 financial year the number of flying hours was slashed by nearly half, from 10 500 to 6300," Maynier said.

The purchase of a new presidential jet - which Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula insists "must happen in this financial year" - is being planned at a time when the budget for the air force helicopter programme has been cut by nearly R500-million.

The cut will affect the operation and maintenance of the SAAF helicopter squadrons.

So severe are the air force budget cuts that 12 of its 28 state-of-the-art multibillion-rand Gripen fighter jets have been put in long-term storage. Another two are still in Sweden, where they were manufactured, because the defence force does not have the capability to fly them. Only six Gripens are currently flying.

The acquisition of the VVIP aircraft - and military jets - is under consideration just a few years after plans to purchase a Boeing 777-200LR executive jet, which would have cost more than R2-billion, were abandoned.

That aircraft, said Maynier, would have seated as many as 40 passengers and would have had the range to fly non-stop to Australia, the US or Japan.

Mapisa-Nqakula said last week: "We have a responsibility to buy these jets. I have directed the process to begin."

Maynier said: "This is completely irresponsible. We are questioning why these purchases are needed when there is a perfectly good serviceable aircraft available, with [air force] training programmes being cut and flying hours slashed by nearly half."

Source: Times LIVE