Ship delays latest Gripen delivery
Date: 25 September 2011
By Dean Wingrin
The South African Air Force (SAAF) will have to wait a week longer to receive its newest Gripen fighter jets. The ship bringing the four aircraft from Sweden to Cape Town has a mechanical problem, delaying her arrival in port by a week.
Four Gripen C single-seat fighters were loaded aboard the cargo vessel Achtergracht (registered in Amsterdam) at the port of Norrkoping in Sweden on 1 September.
Although due in Cape Town on 23 September, the Achtergracht blew a turbo charger and is now travelling at only four knots, compared to her average speed of 14.9 knots. Thus, she will only arrive in Table Bay Harbour on 2 October.
The original Gripen order, placed in 2008 as part of the new defence equipment package, was for nine Gripen D dual-seat and 19 Gripen C single-seat aircraft. However, the order was revised in 2005 to nine dual-seat and seventeen single-seat aircraft.
Armscor, the South African arms procurement agency, is responsible for the delivery of the aircraft to South Africa once they have been handed over by the aircraft manufacturer, SAAB, in Sweden. All nine dual-seat Gripen D aircraft have already been delivered, while nine of the Gripen C version are in SAAF service. Delivery of the seventeenth and final Gripen C is expected in 2012.
