SA Air Force clips wings of local cadets training in Cuba

Air force cadets will no longer be trained in Cuba after the SA Air Force (SAAF) officially terminated its agreement with the government of that country.

Moreover, the last group of students who successfully completed their Cuban training and received their wings will have to complete the SAAF’s flight training from the beginning.

Air force sources spoke to City Press sister publication Rapport over the past week about the many promises that were previously made to the students and broken. Among these was that they, like the first group trained in Cuba, would receive their wings upon their return.

They would also be promoted from candidate officers - with some of the lowest salaries in the air force - to lieutenants. After that, they would be deployed to the respective squadrons for continued integration flight training.

The group has been earning about R18 000 per month as candidate officers since 2021 and will continue to earn the same until they eventually complete the air force training.

The first group of air force students, who were to be trained as pilots, airspace controllers, and aircraft technicians in Cuba under Project Thusano, had completed about 65 flying hours and were deployed to squadrons after promotion. Air force cadets usually go solo when they have had between 20 hours and 30 hours of flying training.

They are fully qualified with about 160 hours.

The first problems, according to sources, began with the deployment of the first group because the pilots did not understand the South African approach to flying.

Training in Cuba was conducted on Russian or Eastern European-type aircraft while the doctrine followed was dramatically different from Western aircraft and flight training in the air force. The same applied to the airspace controllers, while the technicians’ courses are not recognised by the South African qualifications authority.

Since then, the original group of pilots has been performing administrative work at various air force units while they are on a long waiting list to also undergo integration flight training at the Central Flying School at Langebaanweg.

For the subsequent group in 2021, there were reportedly around 8 000 applications, of which 250 were invited for selection. The selection included psychometric and medical evaluation. From this group, 23 made it to the final interviews, and only 15 received call-up instructions.

They first had to undergo basic and officers’ training in South Africa and only 12 passed. They went to Cuba early in 2022, but nine were sent back to South Africa after reportedly failing the Cuban selection test. Most of them are still waiting to start their flight training because, due to financial challenges, only a handful of students are trained annually.

In Cuba, the group first learnt to speak Spanish for six months before they could begin ground training. They were trained on Russian Mi-17 helicopters and received their Cuban wings after completing 35 flying hours. This group were, however not awarded their South African air force wings, nor any promotion.

According to one senior air force officer, this group is likely to be around 30 years old before they finally qualify as junior pilots. They have not even completed their advanced training in the fighter jet, helicopter, or cargo aircraft lines.

He said: "They will fly with a squadron for a year or three and then they will get a desk job somewhere as staff officers. The air force will simply not benefit at all from this entire Cuban excursion."

However, military spokesperson Siphiwe Dlamini, denied that the group of cadets was disadvantaged by their foreign training.

“The training in Cuba is not a waste of time because foreign training produces highly qualified pilots due to their experience. It is in line with study opportunities in other countries that form part of the military’s strategy [to develop its people]. It also strengthens bilateral ties."

SA National Defence Force chief, General Rudzani Maphwanya, said thanks to the “excellent” quality training the cadets received in Cuba, the military would be better equipped for the changing nature of warfare. However, this training programme had now been stopped due to its incompatibility with local standards. 

Published by News24.