Gripen support contracts top R125m

20 July 2011 by Leon Engelbrecht - defenseWeb

A new extension for an existing contract for further on demand support services for the engines of the Saab Gripen advanced light fighter aircraft awarded last week have taken the value of known ancillary work related to the R19.908 billion Project Ukhozi acquisition to R125 million.

The latest work, for R4 750 690.42 was awarded last week and takes the support bill for the fighter to R125 148 205.62.

South Africa ordered 28 Gripen C & D advanced light fighter aircraft in 1999 as part of a “strategic defence package”. The order was later trimmed to 26. The Gripen were acquired as a package with 24 BAE Systems Hawk Mk120 lead-in fighter trainers.

Although still not an operational system, the SA Air Force's growing fleet of SAAB Gripen fighters conducted about half the 51 aircraft intercepts conducted during the June/July soccer World Cup. The SAAF deployed 11 of the available 15 Gripen during the month-long tournament as well as 12 of 24 BAE Systems Hawk lead-in fighter trainers.

SAAF chief Lieutenant General Carlo Gagiano said in April that his service could not afford to put its 15 Gripen jet fighters into the air for the required number of hours. "No, we are not going to fly the required number of hours," he conceded during a media briefing ahead of Minister of Defence and Military Veterans' Lindiwe Sisulu's budget vote in the National Assembly. "But the hours that we will fly will ensure that the people and the aircraft are safe and that we do the correct training."

Gagiano said the air force was getting around the problem by having the cockpits of its fleet of 24 BAE Systems Mk120 Hawk jet trainers "Gripenised" to make for a smoother transition for pilots from one to the other. "We have a few mitigating strategies. First of all as a design principle, we have decided to Gripenise the cockpit of the Hawk so that means that the transition from Hawk to Gripen is almost seemless and very quick. People adapt to the new environment. It is basically just higher performance but they are totally used to the systems.

"We are also in the process of upgrading the [Pilatus] PC-7's cockpits which is enhancing this process and we intend to pull down work from Gripen to Hawk to PC-7 to do the same kind of training but at a much lower cost." He said the air force was also using Gripen simulators extensively and this was working very well.

He said the shortage of funding for the Gripen was part of the shortage of funds felt by the defence force, which is a getting a scant additional R1.3 billion this year. “Gripen is part of this under-funding, perhaps because of the cause of this capability it is perhaps more visible there." The air force's budget comes to around R6 billion of the total defence budget of just over R34 billion, which Sisulu described as totally inadequate, the South African Press Association reported at the time.

If developed as a production aircraft, the naval Tejas would serve aboard the two Vikrant-class indigenous carriers being developed that should enter service at the end of the decade. It is not likely to serve aboard the INS Vikramaditya, formerly the Russian carrier Admiral Gorshkov, which could enter service at the end of 2012, or the INS Viraat, a former UK Royal Navy carrier expected to serve until 2020.

"This is the first time India is developing a naval aircraft, so it will be challenging," the official said.

The naval version of the Tejas has a number of modifications from the baseline aircraft. It has longer and strengthened landing gear, an arrester hook to enable landing on an aircraft carrier and additional control surfaces, and a leading edge vortex controller to reduce the fighter's required speed on approach to the vessel. Its front fuselage has also been changed to provide the pilot with better visibility over the nose.

More details here