Rooivalk goes to war

After gathering dust for a couple of and swallowing R8bn, SA's attack helicopter will finally see action in Sudan.

 A PRIME SYMBOL of the apartheid era's military and technological ambitions, the Rooivalk attack helicopter is beingg prepared for its first operational deployment into a conflict zone.

After 24 years of development, at a cost of at least R8bn, the controversial and much-maligned Rooivalk is having new weapons systems fitted and will be deployed with the SANDF's peace-keeping forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan's Darfur region early in 2009.

Some aviation experts still consider the Rooivalk to be the world's best attack helicopter in its class, yet only 12 have ever been sold, late in the day and to our own SAAF. It's highly unlikely that another Rooivalk will be built and only 11 are in use today - which means each machine represents an investment of some R727m.

Crucial orders from overseas that Would have led to a production line repeatedly evaporated into thin air. Some blame spoiling maneuvers by the U5, still apparently mightily pissed off over the perceived theft by Fuchs Electronics of their fuse technology, plus Kentron's appropriation of US gyro technology for the company's original anti-tank missile. Besides, they say, if the Rooivalk is so good, why did it take the SAAF so long to buy it? And, a final thrust, the Rooivalk has never (till now) had the chance to prove itself in battle.

The Rooivalk has also been condemned as a white elephant, an obsolete legacy of apartheid. Every new allocation of fluids to the project is seized on a; the latest example of taxpayers' money down the drain. But not always fairly.

There were howls of fury when, on 10 September, Beeld quoted new Denel chief executive Talib Sadik as saying that an additional R385m was to be injected into upgrading the Rooivalk's weapons system. This was misleading: Denel had made an earlier provision of R680m to complete the helicopter for deployment - R385m of this remained unspent and is now being used, it wasn't additional funding.

Last year, after Denel failed to win Turkey's tender for 60 attack helicopters - the S2bn tender went to Italy's Augusta Aerospace - Denel's then chief executive Shaun Liebenberg announced a decision to cease development and funding on Rooivalk.

The dozen Rooivalks bought by the Air Force are all with 16 Squadron, based at Bloemspruit air base near Bloemfontein. One crashed several years ago - it^'s still to he repaired - and the remaining 11 have been passing through a massive hanger at Denel Aviation undergoing weapons system upgrades and sorting out problems - basically with the French avionics system. Since tile 12 were virtually hand-built, one at a time over a period of years, they have now been brought to a single standard for easier maintenance in the field.

Work on half a dozen Rooivalks was recently completed and they^'re back with 16 Squadron - much to the delight of its pilots who are, without exception, deeply, madly in love with the gutsy giant (maximum take-off weight 8.75 tons). "She's one of the few aircraft with such a high power-to-weight ratio that I've seen,"^- says an Air Force source. "She'll certainly out manoeuvre the other attack helicopters in her class, certainly America's Apache and the Franco-European Tiger, although the new Cobra (Bell's AH-1Z Zulu) would give us a bit of 'a run for our money,"

Unbelievably - for a helicopter with a fully-articulated rotor head - the Rooivalk can do rolls, loops and the highly-hairy hammerhead stall. Such high jinks are forbidden by Air Force regulations, although the are sometimes demonstrated at air shows to thrill the crowds.

As for Pooivalk's software and systems being obsolete, Air Force sources shoot that one out of the sky. ^"They^'re not obsolete! Rooivalk is a 1990s helicopter and very few helicopters around the world are 1990s generation."

Training at Bloemspruit air base is intense, with the pilots of 16 Squadron on standby to go operational in the new year, in a peace-keeping role. In the DRC, and more especially Sudan's Darfur region, it is planned that Rooivalk will specialise in covert special operations in rebel-occupied territories: surgical-type strikes, with or without infantry.

Development of South Africa's first attack helicopter began in the early 1980s for planned deployment in the Angolan war. It was envisaged that 36 would be ordered to counter Russia's Mi-24 gunship. But by the time of the CSH-2 Rooivalk's first flight on 11 February 1990 the Angolan war was over - and government's enthusiasm began to wane. It waned even more post 1994.

Rooivalk has come near- to crippling state arms manufacturer Denel. In 2002 the company posted a net loss of R363m, blaming the loss on a R429m write-off resulting from restructuring costs -and on the attack helicopter, where it had to write off R126m to cover technical risk provisions.

In 1995 Denel's trading division Atlas Aviation thought it was a favoured bidder for a £2bn tender for 91 attack helicopters for Britain's Army Air Corps. UK defence secretary Malcolm Ritkind_, however, said that Britain would not entertain "linkage" between the Rooivalk deal and the UK's bid to sell corvettes to the South African navy - a trade-off strongly punted by then defence minister Joe Modise. Britain subsequently bought the US's Apache with its Hellfire missile system.

In December 1995 it was announced that the Rooivalk was to be manufactured under licence in Malaysia. Denel signed a memorandum of understanding with Kuala Lumpur's Airod Sdn Bhd company to jointly manufacture the Rooivalk, as well as the medium transport Oryx helicopter.

The R2.2bn package was hailed as the biggest breakthrough for SA's armaments industry since the lifting of international sanctions. President Nelson Mandela flew to Malaysia to clinch the deal. But after three on-off years the project fizzled out owing, it was claimed, to the Asian currency crisis.

In April 1996, the SANDF finally announced that it was buying those 12 Rooivalks in a R2.4bn deal. The first was due for delivery in 1998 and the last in 2001. It was a reluctant purchase, with retiring SAAF chief Lieut-Gen James Kriel complaining there were more pressing priorities, such as the replacement of the Impala jet trainers.

Other countries spasmodically interested in the Rooivalk include Greece, Finland. Sweden and Spain In 1998 the Australian army invited British Aerospace Australia and Denel to bid for a R4bn contract to supply reconnaissance and fire-support helicopters. Rooivalk, priced at R100m each, was up against Boeing's Longbow Apache (R138m) and Eurocopter's Tiger (R126m). Despite the cost advantage. Rooivalk failed again, this time, say insiders, because Australia had fears that either Denel and/or South Africa would fail to survive over the aircraft's 30-year operational lifespan.

The last and final hope was Turkey, whose curly interest in the Rooivalk in the 1990s was rebuffed by Nelson Mandela's administration, which refused to sell weapons to countries waging war against seperatists within their own borders (for more than two decades Turkey has been fighting a rebellion by Kurdish rebels in the country's south east). In 2006 Thabo Mbeki's government harboured no such scruples and offered to transfer military technology to Turkey as part of a hid to win a $2bn tender for 50 attack helicopter; for the Turkish army.

In April 2007, the death blow: Turkey awarded the tender to Italy's Augusta Aerospace, for its smaller Mangusta helicopter. Politics was widely said to be behind the decision - Italy supports Turkey in its long-standing desire to become a member of the European Union.

Talking to the Financial Mail days after Turkey's rejection, then Denel chief executive Shaun Liebenberg confirmed that Eurocopter, which pulled the plug on its gearbox and other dynamic components for Rooivalk, had given the company notice that they would not support further sales of Rooivalk. ^"That means we will never sell another Rooivalk anywhere, ever,^" said Liebenberg.

He added that Rooivalk cost Denel about R100m/year ^"just to keep the people resources and capability available". The following month Denel announced it would spend no more on the Rooivalk.

If Rooivalk proves itself operationally nest year, what are its hopes for the future? "Denel is currently focusing on establishing sustainable profitable business entities and selling Rooivalk abroad is not a priority at the moment." says a company spokesman. "Denel is of the opinion that Rooivalk is a very capable product and that it has a good future in operations that the SAAF will be engaged in."

• Denel chief executive Shaun Liebenberg, poached by Germany's Rheinmetall Waffe Munition, has been replaced by the group's former financial officer Talib Sadik.

Liebenberg has denied that his departure was due to Denel's decline (net loss of R347m for the year to 31 March) or government's failure to come up with the R 1.7bn balance of a R5.2bn bail-out to fund reconstructing costs and debt repayments.

Source: Noseweek (Nov 2008)