What should be done regarding South Africa’s VIP air transport?
Date: 25 November 2011
By Keith Campbell
I must say that I am most pleased that Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu rejected the resignation of South African Air Force (SAAF) chief Lieutenant-General Carlo Gagiano. The chief of the Air Force (CAF) offered his resignation over the problems that have afflicted the international transport of the President and the Deputy President and the acquisition of new VIP aircraft.
I am not going to rehash the whole story. Suffice it to say that the SAAF's main VIP aircraft, a Boeing Business Jet (BBJ - a VIP version of the 737-700 airliner) is currently out of service for a major scheduled inspection. This aircraft was delivered to the SAAF in July 2001, just over a decade ago. The country has no other long-range VIP aircraft, the rest of the SAAF VIP fleet comprising two Cessna Citation II aircraft, two Dassault Falcon 50s and one Falcon 900.
The Citations are small and are also nearly 30 years old. The bigger Falcons are almost as old. The Falcon 50s are 25 to 30 years old, while the 900 is 20 years old. All but the BBJ and Falcon 900 really need replacing, and there is a budget to acquire new VIP aircraft. Sisulu is known to want a couple of Boeing 767s, to carry more passengers further than the BBJ can.
Now, it might come as a surprise, but the CAF is not responsible for the acquisition (or leasing) of new aircraft. One of his responsibilities is to make recommendations about such acquisitions, but he does not make the decision. There is a central acquisition budget which, if I remember correctly, falls under the Secretary of Defence and which is overseen by Armscor.
But the question is whether the SAAF should operate VIP aircraft at all? Well, most countries do. But there is a huge divergence in approaches.
Most of the major countries of the Commonwealth are very stingy when it comes to VIP planes. Countries like the UK and India only operate short- and regional-range VIP jets in their air forces. Their heads of State and government have to use airliners from their national carriers for long-range and interconti- nental flights (sometimes taking sche- duled services and sometimes chartering aircraft - but chartering can get very expensive).
Many European countries spoil their leaderships - little Belgium has an Airbus A330 widebody jet for VIP use, while the German Air Force has two Airbus A340 four-jet widebodies just for VIP transport. Other countries, such as Canada and France, have widebody intercontinental aircraft which can be used by VIPs but which can also be, and are, used as strategic transports for troops and cargo, depending on what is required.
Brazil is known to be interested in acquiring two Airbus Multirole Tanker Transport aircraft (based on the A330), one of which would be fitted as a VIP aircraft, as well as being a tanker (this has long been Brazil's approach to long-range VIP transport - using a specially fitted tanker aircraft also as a Presiden- tial jet). Similarly, Israel is reported to be inter- ested in acquiring two Boeing KC-767 tankers, one of which would also be fitted as a VIP aircraft.
The SAAF sees long-range VIP transports as strategic assets - "diplomacy is the first line of defence," Lt-Gen Gagiano said to me earlier this year. It would be good if South Africa could emulate Brazil, Canada, France and Israel, and acquire an aircraft that would have at least one other role in addition to VIP transport. However, the SAAF is concerned that these different roles could get in each other's way. The way around that would be to buy a slightly larger number of aircraft - three instead of two, for example - thereby creating the necessary spare capacity. It would cost more, yes, but the country would get a lot more out of the aircraft.
Source: Engineering News
