Publication: defenceWeb Issued: Date: 2009-06-12 Reporter:

First SA Gripen single-seater flies

 

Publication 

defenceWeb
Date

2009-06-12

Web Link

www.defenceweb.co.za



The first single-seat Saab JAS39 Gripen C destined for the South African Air Force made its maiden flight at Linköping in Sweden yesterday.

The aircraft, number 39.2101 (SAAF 3910), was flown by Saab test pilot Richard Ljungberg.
 
It took off from the Saab facility at 1pm and touched down safely back at 2.03pm.
 
A Saab spokesman says the aircraft will undergo a short flight test programme ahead of delivery to South Africa in October *1.
 
The SA air Force is currently receiving the last of nine dual-seat Gripen D fighters under a comprehensive military transformation and modernisation programme and will from October receive 17 Gripen C *2.
 
All the aircraft bar a test platform will be at Air Force Base Makhado in Limpopo and are assigned to 2 Squadron. The test aircraft is assigned to the SAAF Test Flight and Development Centre at AFB Overberg near Bredasdorp east of Cape Town.   

The Gripen will next year play a key role safeguarding the FIFA Soccer World Cup *3. 



Gripen #10 makes its maiden flight. Credit: Per Kustvik/Saab *4


 With acknowledgements to defenceWeb.



*1       That's just one month short of 10 years from the date of contract signature on 3 December 1999.

Normal delivery time for a fighter jet is two to four years after contract signature.

This is just another reason to show why the Hawk and Gripen deal was such a contrived affair.

The SA Air Force did not then need a new fighter jet.

It possibly needed a replacement for the ageing Impala jet trainer, but the SA Air Force had not decided how to go about this at that time and had not completed any of the mandatory studies and project documents.

Indeed it had made a decision, an absolutely crucial decision, and that was to have a two-tier system, i.e. train firstly on the turboprop Pilatus trainers and then proceed to the dual-seater jet fighters.

Joe Modise reversed (almost surely unlawfully) this decision and forced the SA Air Force back to the three-tier system.

Without the three-tier system there was no requirement for the Hawk and without the Hawk there would not have been the Gripen.

The Gripen was tied to the Hawk, but was not even required until 2012 at the very earliest because 38 Cheetah C 3rd generation fighter jet had been taken into service by 2 Air Force Base Hoedspruit in 1997.

This was a deal conjured up by British Aerospace and then by Joe Modise and Chippy Shaik to create a R15 billion with R1,2 billion in kickbacks.

Even the Marketing Director of British Aerospace, Allan McDonald has admitted under oath that he received £5 million in illegal commissions.

Now the authorities in the UK are not sure whether to charge McDonald as a partner in crime or use him as a state witness.


*2      17 Gripen C or 19?

At the last count the total was 28.

Maybe two have already been sold off for operating budget.


*3      I suppose a possible scenario is like 9/11 where some dingbat seeking celestial virgins wants to fly a 747 fully fuelled into a full soccer stadium.

So we have a dozen soccer stadiums around the country and two or three single seat Gripen on fighter duty spread out from Polokwane to Cape Town to Port Elizabeth.

Of course the dual seaters will come in handy as well.

But you can bet your bottom krone that if the SA Air Force takes soccer stadium protection duty seriously, it will have a dozen at least Cheetah Cs up and running and on combat air patrol while any games are in progress and a couple of hours either side thereof. There will simply not be time to allow for action stations on the hard standing.

May God forbid it.

PS :

*4       Excellent photo.


*5      Two other points.

Will the SAAF have acquired weapons for the Gripen by the time Soccer World Cup comes about.

One can fly about all one likes, but if there are some virgin seekers on a mission it helps not taking about it on the radio.

Also these will need to be acquired in a hurry because they need system integration, test and qualification. Pilots need weapons training beforehand they go out on the mission, not during the first mission.

The Gripens were acquired without weapons.

This is another reason to show that they were not needed at that time or for a very long time in the future, 12 to 15 years.

It was a deal done in great haste so that Modise could retire from the ministry after the prime contractors were selected in November 1998 and give him time to get into real action by the time the contracts were signed in December 1009 and the contracts, including the numerous DIP and NIP contracts, started being executed from April 2000.

Lastly, the SA government, DoD and SAAF had better have their rules of engagement ready in time for Soccer World Cup.

You can have all the fighter jets, all the air-to-air missiles one likes, but without the rules of engagement no pilot or flight controller will shoot down a passenger aircraft with hundreds of passengers onboard.