Airbus Military awarded R475K in CASA work

29 March 2011  by defenceWeb

Airbus Military has been awarded a contract of just over R475 000 to provide product support services to the South African Air Force for its fleet of four CASA C212 and one CASA C235 transport aircraft. The order is an extension of a 2009 contract that was worth R16.5 million. Prior to that, such services were provided by Execujet under a 2003 contract. The total value of work since 2007 stand at R36 242 341.86. The SAAF inherited its C212 Aviocar fleet in 1994 from the air wings of the former Bophuthatswana (1, 1985), Transkei (2, 1986) and Venda (2, 1988). It is a short-take-off and landing aircraft with a rough field capability, high wings and a fixed landing gear. The C212 was designed as a C47 replacement and has been called a scaled-down C130. The C212 can take off from fields as short as 400m. The SAAF inherited its C235 from the Bophuthatswana, who acquired it in 1991. The type originated as a joint venture between Casa of Spain and IPTN of Indonesia, at the time manufacturing C212 under license. The C235 sports high wings, an unswept rear fuselage with ramp and a retractable tricycle landing gear, with the rear wheels retracting into external fairings to ensure an unrestricted cabin. A maritime patrol version exists that can carry missiles and torpedoes on up to six under-wing hard points. Like the C212, the C235 is a short-take-off and landing aircraft with a rough field capability. It is also said to have excellent low-level flying characteristics for tactical penetration missions.