Birdstrike tests completed as air force gets ready to receive first aircraft in mid-2005
South Africa's first locally assembled BAE Systems Hawk 120 lead-in fighter trainer (LIFT) is on schedule to start taxi trials in the fourth quarter and will make its debut flight in January. Completed at Denel's Kempton Park plant near Johannesburg, the aircraft completed birdstrike testing last month. Ground tests of its Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour 951 engine will continue until year-end.
Seven Hawk kits have been delivered to Denel's final assembly hall, and first deliveries to the South African Air Force (SAAF) are scheduled for mid-2005. Aircraft will be handed over at a rate of two a month until mid-2006. The Hawk LIFT will replace South Africa's Atlas Impala (Aermacchi MB326) trainers, which are scheduled to be decommissioned in late 2005.
The programme's lone UK-built aircraft, SA001, had flown 21 of its 75 planned test flights by late July, completing navigation and radio tests and performing initial drops of Mk81 115kg (250lb) bombs. The aircraft began trials in South Africa in mid-2003 and will complete its activities in mid-2005, says Jonathan Walton, BAE's project head in the country.
The SAAF will receive 24 Hawks and 28 Saab/BAE Gripen multirole fighters under a $2.2 billion transformation programme signed in 1999. Deliveries of its nine two-seat D-model Gripens will run from early 2008 until late 2009, and its 19 single-seat Gripen Cs will be handed over between 2009 and 2011. The service's first two-seat aircraft will begin flight testing in Sweden in late 2005, before trials of the aircraft begin in South Africa in 2006.
The Hawk and Gripen deal includes an associated offset package worth $8.7 billion and divided between so-called direct and national industrial packages. Direct offsets are worth $1.5 billion over seven years, and national commitments through sectors such as mineral exploitation and tourism will total $7.2 billion over 11 years.
By late June, agreement had been reached with Armscor for over $684 million of the $1.5 billion national industrial package commitment, spanning more than 30 projects. Additional work could involve South African industry producing parts for new Hawks now on order for Bahrain, India and the UK. The national offset package is also under way, with 44 projects submitted totalling more than $600 million.
CRAIG HOYLE / LONDON
Source: Flight International
