Flying New Jets on Empty Tanks

By Peter Honey

It was a terrible year, truly terrible - the worst I have experienced since taking command," says air force chief Lt Gen Roelf Beukes.

He's speaking about 2001, when the air force started the year with an R85m (4,4%) budget deficit and a belt-tightening plan to close down bases, aircraft and support systems. Twelve months later the deficit had been wiped out and most of the earmarked bases, aircraft and support systems had been closed.

But at what cost? Aircraft flying hours have been pared to the bone, highly trained pilots have left and crew morale has deteriorated. Just 10 frontline fighter pilots remain in service at 2 Squadron, Louis Trichardt, where 36 Cheetah jets stand largely hangar-bound to save fuel costs. At a recent air display for the press a Cheetah was making impressive loops and rolls. "Right now it's eating six litres a second," shouted a pilot in my ear to make himself heard above the thunder of the careening jet. "I live right next to Waterkloof air base and used to hear jets taking off and landing all the time. Now I hardly ever hear them," remarked an air force member recently.

The Cheetah squadron is being cut back to 28 aircraft, to match the number of Saab-BAE Gripens that will begin to replace them from 2006.

At Hoedspruit air base in Mpumalanga, the Impala squadron is being radically downscaled to 24 planes, which will be replaced by that number of BAE Hawk lead-in trainer jets from early next year. But air force sources say there are just 12 pilots to fly them at present.

For all of the controversy over the cost of SA's strategic arms purchases - about R30bn for the two jet packages alone - the big question is whether SA will be able to use the new equipment to best advantage. If just 10 of 28 Cheetahs can take to the air at any time and just 12 Impalas, how many pilots will be available to fly the Gripens and Hawks?

"The current funding and personnel retention figures will not suffice for the new systems," defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota admitted in parliament in June. What's more, much of the air force's armaments required for jets are outdated. Without it the aircraft cannot be used to maximum capacity.

Like most sophisticated military systems, fighter jets and pilots cannot be left dormant to be used only in times of crisis. Pilots need constant practice, and jets must fly to remain operational. At the beginning of this year the air force had just 54 mission-ready aircraft and 44 mission-ready helicopters - probably fewer than half the aircraft in service, and the mission-ready count has fallen since then.

The air force, as Beukes has made clear, is being forced to cut its suit to match the cloth. That makes the Gripen a good choice. It is what is called a "swing-role" jet, which means it is capable of changing its dynamics to suit different roles - from, say fighter to bomber - in midflight. Such multidimensional features are ideal for a small air force which cannot afford a vast battery of single-purpose aircraft. And the compatibility of the Hawk with the Gripen makes it a sensible trainer.

"We have no choice but to make the air force effective within its budget," says Beukes. The key, then, lies in retaining pilots and specialised ground crew, and speeding up the recruitment and training of new pilots and crew. Representivity, too, is important. So far only one black pilot, Capt Musa Mbhokota, has earned his wings for Cheetahs.

The air force has committed to recruiting 50 trainee pilots by January next year, says Beukes. How many of those will go on to qualify and be ready for the new jets is anyone's guess. It can take three to four years to upgrade a conventional pilot to handle an Impala or Hawk and a further seven years to convert that pilot to full fighter grade. The air force has also embarked on a long-term programme, Siyandiza ("we are flying"), to popularise the service among mostly black children. But the benefits of that will take a generation.

Meanwhile, the air force faces greater challenges than simply a need for jet fighters. A major problem is the shortage of air transport aircraft, essential to carry troops and equipment to points of conflict or disaster. Just nine C130 transporters are in service. Six are undergoing necessary upgrades in England and at the Denel aircraft facility near Pretoria. All nine upgrades are expected to be completed by January 2005.

"Things are starting to fall into place," says Beukes. "I am positive about the future of our air force."

Despite its decline, the air force has continued to deliver yeoman service to the SA police, deployments of troops to peace missions in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and humanitarian relief to the victims of floods, droughts and shipwrecks.

It is too important a resource to be allowed to collapse.

Financial Mail