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PostPosted: 08 Nov 2018, 16:46 
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http://www.saairforce.co.za/news-and-events/1577/saaf-can-only-put-two-c-130s-into-the-air-at-any-one-time

Also of concern is that interest in procuring new transport has never been lower, basically there is none.

The Air Force has no budget, and manufacturers have given up.

Unfortunately it looks like the SAAF will loose its medium transport capability before new aircraft will be acquired, a unbelievable situation.

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PostPosted: 09 Nov 2018, 07:18 
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And you are surprised??

They'll rather try and save a mutual looted bank from Venda way.


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PostPosted: 09 Nov 2018, 17:31 
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GLF4 wrote:
And you are surprised??

They'll rather try and save a mutual looted bank from Venda way.


Am I surprised?

Yes I am.

As the news is released it's revealed just how bad the situation is. Remember information like this if true is not often published if at all, so yes it does come as surprise.

Its not just that there is no money, its that the problem extends beyond the Air Force. There is a difference between not having the budget to fly aircraft and not being able to support the airworthiness of aircraft. The amount of reinvestment in resources required to return the capability even now is more than simply acquiring new aircraft.

The next surprise could be that the C-130 fleet gets indefinitely grounded, and it won't necessarily be the SAAF's fault.

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Last edited by Mars on 09 Nov 2018, 19:58, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: 09 Nov 2018, 19:57 
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The SAAF had zero light liaison/reconnaissance capability in the 2017/18 financial year with its entire fleet of Cessna 208s grounded. The report to the oversight committee has it the single-engined aircraft were “operationally unavailable due to [the] unavailability [of a] maintenance support contract being in place”.

Indications are AFB Waterkloof-based 41 Squadron will be airborne in January next year provided “the steady state maintenance support contract, in process to be finalised by Armscor, is in place”.

http://www.saairforce.co.za/news-and-events/1578/%EF%BF%BDcritical-maintenance-events%EF%BF%BD-impact-on-saaf-maritime-patrol-capabilities

Case in point, I did not know that 41 Sqn had been grounded and has been so for sometime already!

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PostPosted: 10 Nov 2018, 18:13 
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Location: Centurion, Pretoria, SA
Why are you surprised or worried ? This is "progress" the Mzansi way. Spelt "ssergorp".


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PostPosted: 10 Nov 2018, 22:21 
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Mistral wrote:
Why are you surprised or worried ? This is "progress" the Mzansi way. Spelt "ssergorp".


Why am I surprised or worried?

Simple answer, because its important to me.
This is not progress.

According to the two articles on any given day the following transport aircraft are available:
-2 X C130's (over 50 years old)
-2 X C47Tps (over 80 years old)
- No C208's (over 30 years old)

What about the Casa fleet?

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PostPosted: 11 Nov 2018, 07:33 
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CASA fleet is flying, but there's not many of them. They even repaired one that had been damaged in 2008 and put back into service in the past year.

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PostPosted: 12 Nov 2018, 20:48 
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Thanks Dean,

Lets say there are 2 Casa's available. That would bring the whole transport fleet to 6 aircraft available for daily tasking at best, maybe 7 at a push.

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PostPosted: 14 Nov 2018, 20:17 
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Amazing. ZS-RSA BBJ did a flight today it seems as well. And ZS-NAN F900 is back in the air as well.


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PostPosted: 15 Nov 2018, 12:36 
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Well done to the SAAF pilots that they're still able to fly long distance C-130 flights like the (senseless) flights to Cuba this past year, with so little flying time available.


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PostPosted: 02 Dec 2018, 16:54 
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It's true that we sometimes forget which information is widely known and which is not. In short though, it's generally safe to assume that any given SAAF squadron is operating under austerity measures and is therefore operating at <50% capacity. For some, <25% capacity should be expected.

This means that 28 Squadron's performance goal is to have two aircraft available on any given day, going up to three for surge periods of high activity. All seven of the remaining operational aircraft (401, 402, 403, 405, 406, 408, 409) are rotated through a slowed-down maintenance cycle to keep within the available budget. The same is true for every other squadron, to a greater or lesser extent, and it's one reason why the DoD has stopped making these annual performance figures available.

I can't criticise the initial idea behind this, because it's the only option that both keeps the lights on with current funding and personnel levels and retains the fleet size and bases specified in the desired force design. That said, it comes with substantial long-term cost, not least of which is low morale, an exodus of air and ground crew, reduced capability, and gradual reductions in institutional knowledge. Safety, too, is suffering. These austerity measures, first implemented at current levels in 2012, were only supposed to last a year or two until more funding was secured. Keeping the same approach for six years is ruinous.

Right now the SAAF is budgeted to fly 25 000 hours a year, of which 20 000 are for force preparation (training & currency), 4 000 are for force employment in direct support of Joint Operations, and 1 000 are for VIP flying. I would be very surprised if the last financial year's total hours exceeded 17 000, owing to the unavailability of aircraft & crews.

Something has to give. Either more funding must be secured, which is unlikely, or the SAAF needs to be given the freedom to implement some of its cost-saving measures such as shutting down bases and squadrons and retiring certain aircraft. There is no longer any alternative.


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PostPosted: 03 Dec 2018, 17:05 
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1 000 hours for VIP, lol.

Not if ZS-RSA and ZS-NAN as well as ZS-CAS are active again!!

I expect that figure will grow and chew up a lot of the other flying hours...

We'll need ZS-RSA to do LMG1 WKF-CPT and return often and ZS-NAN LMG2 WKF-MQP and return a lot as well.


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PostPosted: 03 Dec 2018, 17:10 
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The 1000 hours includes VIP charters and helicopter flights. Remember it’s a performance measurement, the actual process of budgeting to fulfil the requirement is separate.

So it’ll still be 1000 hours with ZS-RSA, ZS-NAN, ZS-CAS & ZS-CAQ, but the cost of meeting that requirement should decrease.


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PostPosted: 03 Dec 2018, 21:46 
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Let's hope, Bestfly and Execujet made enough money out of us taxpayers.


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PostPosted: 03 Dec 2018, 22:24 
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Those weren't the worst of it. The ill-considered decision by Ramaphosa's team to exclusively charter from SAA instead of the providers like Execujet who were part of the RT61 contract cost more in just six months than Zuma's charters cost in two years. Those A330s and A340s are a lot more expensive than a GLEX.

But yes, better that this be done by 21 Squadron.


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