The South African Air Force Gripen fleet (SAAF) is temporarily on ground, without operating planes, due to lack of funding and maintenance and support contracts are not renewed in time, but the Gripens are likely to return to fly into the new year.
In a statement resulting from several investigations by the media, the South African Defense Department said the South African National Defense Force (SANDF)’s Air Defense capacity was negatively affected by the discussion nes extended on maintenance contracts.
“After a lengthy discussion between the South African Air Force (SAAF), via Armscor and Saab about the Gripen contract, both sides have submitted proposals and are being analyzed to ensure that the matter is addressed in a concluding manner te for the parts involved. It is unfortunate that the discussions have taken longer than expected as a result, which had a negative impact on Air Defense’s capacity,” said Siphiwe Dlamini, Chief of Communications at the Defense Department.
He added that “SAAF trusts that a solution will be found to solve this problem.” Due to the sensitivity surrounding the discussion, negotiations cannot be made public.”
Darren Olivier, director of African Defense Review, says that, “thanks to this delay, the SAAF Gripen fleet has been paralyzed for three months and will probably not be back on air until the end of January as soon as possible.”
He believes it’s a crisis caused mainly by severe budget cuts, “but apparently worsened by a dysfunctional relationship between SAAF and Armscor and poor contract management. “This is a crisis that should never have reached this point.”
At least in August this year, negotiations on the placement of new support contracts for Hawk and Gripen were still ongoing due to “high fixed costs”.
DefenseWeb understands that maintenance and support contracts were not renewed in time due to the requirements of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), the improper implementation of Armsc's Preference Procurement Regulations or and the financing restrictions.
It is believed that half of the Gripen's fleet of 26 planes was cannibalized for spare parts, while the crew lost money due to the lack of flight hours. This looks aggravated by the lack of PC-7 Mk II trainers available.
Source:
https://aviacionefossil.blogspot.com/2021/12/los-gripens-de-la-saaf-estan-en-tierra.html?fbclid=IwAR2AHZ89cdpS-KPDE8z6qniZ6NqZ1_4v8nq7kp14Y7osBI1ZhgZvdXokZeY