Pockets of excellence exist despite defence budget cuts

Africa Aerospace and Defence at Waterkloof showed SA ingenuity with Gripen fighters and Rooivalk helicopters. Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD), Africa’s biennial defence manufacturing showcase, has been and gone. Held at Waterkloof Air Force Base, the trade fair always ends with an airshow for the public. Showgoers won’t have been disappointed. The SA Air Force’s (SAAF) Gripen fighters thundered overhead, shooting flares as they headed for the heavens. The homegrown Rooivalks pirouetted over the runway, while the Hawks from SA’s own Top Gun school did flick-flacks in formation for the fans below. It’s all a far cry from the previous AAD in 2024, when the SAAF’s fighter component was grounded because of budgetary constraints. Cynics – and they are legion – might complain that the week-long buzzing of the east of Pretoria and surrounds was window dressing, with the generals robbing Peter of next year’s defence budget to pay Paul’s demands this year. Others have complained of the lack of Western arms and aircraft manufacturers, compared to previous shows in favour of exhibitors from Brazil, Russia, India and China – the Brics bloc. But what no-one mentions is the amount of SA ingenuity and capability on show. To the uninitiated, it seems a wonder why the department of defence is still struggling with its catastrophic budget and overdue plan to replace the army’s 50-year-old Ratels, when we have several homegrown manufacturers who have designed armoured combat vehicles and supplied other militaries in Africa and beyond. The same goes for the new-generation stuff – drones, tents, the communication kit, without forgetting the typical South African boer maak ‘n plan spirit to rejuvenate what the SANDF already has, whether it’s optics for turrets or sprucing up the venerable R4 assault rifle. We expect our country to be exceptional. It is. Like us, parts of it are exceptionally good and others are exceptionally awful – as the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry vies with the Kempton Park murders to see which one can plumb the depths this country can sink to. Chucking hi-tech fighters around the airspace, performing mock battles using pyrotechnics, helicopters and paratroopers and performing synchronised aerobatics efficiently and safely, can’t be ascribed to muscle memory. It takes hours of planning, practice and professionalism, which the Cassandras tell us doesn’t exist. Sometimes we need to believe what we see and not what we hear and then make up our own minds.