While not cast in stone, it appears the airborne arm of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) has its eyes on two possible types to replace its ageing C-130BZ fleet.
In the Estimates of National Expenditure (ENE) for the 2015/16 financial year National Treasury indicates “the department (of defence) will be acquiring equipment and developing systems to maintain a modern, balanced and technologically advanced force. It has budgeted for medium and light transport aircraft, a new generation mobile communication capability and precision guided air force ammunition for air defence. These acquisitions are reflected in spending in the Air Defence programme in 2016/17 and 2017/18”.Requests for further information from the SA Air Force (SAAF) remain unanswered and defenceWeb had to turn to defence analyst Helmoed Heitman for assistance.
On the issue of “budgeted” in SANDF terms he maintains it could have one of two meanings.
“Firstly, they (the SAAF) have decided what they want, received and accepted the offer and have put money to one side for it. The other option is they know roughly what they want, have approval to proceed with the acquisition project, know roughly what it will cost and have found the money in a particular time slot within the overall capital budget. It has been earmarked for specifically this purpose, pending an RfO process and a tender.
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SAAF probably looking at C-130 or KC-390 for medium airlift
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