Air force lacks Hawk instructors

Graeme Hosken

There is no one in the South African Air Force (SAAF) qualified to train pilots to fly the new generation of Hawk lead-in fighter trainers, four of which were delivered last week.

The new Hawk is to be used to train the country's up-and-coming fighter pilots for the new fighter jets, the Gripens, which are to replace the current fighter jets, the Cheetahs. The first Gripen will be delivered in 2008.

Ten more of the Hawks are expected to be delivered in the next three weeks. The SAAF will eventually have 24 of these trainer aircraft.

General Pierre du Plessis, the SAAF's Director: Combat Systems, said to date five air force instructors and one pilot had been trained in the conversion from the Impalas to the Hawks.

But he said none of the instructors had been trained on the Hawk's instructors course.

This despite four of the aircraft having been delivered to Air Force Base Makhado last week following a handing-over ceremony at Denel Aviation at Johannesburg International Airport. One of the pilots who flew one of the new Hawks was a reserve pilot.

Air Force Base Makhado is home to the SAAF's 85th Combat Flying School.

Du Plessis said the SAAF was working on three goals: the training of instructors, operations training and fighter training.

He said a Royal Air Force instructor and a former Mirage F1 and Cheetah pilot were helping out with training.

Meanwhile, Chief of the SAAF Lieutenant-General Carlo Gagiano, said on Tuesday the SAAF was working to close gaps which had left the air force's fighting training capability in a perilous situation. He said the gaps developed during the phasing out of the Impalas.

Gagiano made the announcement at Pretoria's Air Force Base Waterkloof on Tuesday during his annual state-of-the-air-force address.

For strategic reasons, he declined to comment on the number of fighter pilots the SAAF had, but admitted that "gaps had developed in training" between the phasing out of the Impalas and the bringing in of the new Hawks.

The Impalas were shelved in November last year and sold to Brazil.

Gagiano said significant progress had been made with pilot training, especially in terms of transformation, with 45 of the 72 pilots and navigators trained in the past two years being black.

Institute of Security Studies defence sector programme head Len le Roux said the situation regarding the availability of instructors for the Hawk was due to the conversion from the Impalas to the Hawks.

"This exacerbated the problems which all of the world's air forces have to manage in peacetime," he said.

But Le Roux said he did not see a major crisis developing, especially with the emphasis the air force had placed on the pilots. "It is not the first time the air force has faced these problems and it is not the last time and it will be resolved as the new aircraft are phased in."

The Pretoria News