{"id":7710,"date":"2013-07-24T12:37:51","date_gmt":"2013-07-24T12:37:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=7710"},"modified":"2013-07-24T12:37:51","modified_gmt":"2013-07-24T12:37:51","slug":"are-the-sandfs-helicopters-grounded-for-lack-of-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=7710","title":{"rendered":"Are the SANDF&#8217;s helicopters grounded for lack of funds?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_7714\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7714\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/augusts_a109lun.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7714\" alt=\"The SANDF's Agusta A109 helicopter\" src=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/augusts_a109lun-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/augusts_a109lun-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/augusts_a109lun.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7714\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The SANDF&#8217;s Agusta A109 helicopter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The SA National Defence Force refused to comment on Wednesday about allegations that its 18 Agusta A109 helicopters were grounded as there were no funds to operate them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;My comment is very clear: we do not discuss operational matters and [the defence force&#8217;s] state of readiness,&#8221; said SANDF spokesman Siphiwe Dlamini.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to Beeld newspaper, it was told by an anonymous source that the helicopters were occasionally enabled, but did not ascend.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the long-term, this reportedly meant pilots could lose their competency skills and that the helicopters would fall into disuse.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Beeld reported that the SAAF&#8217;s 26 Gripen fighter aircraft, which were also bought in the multi-billion rand arms deal a few years ago, were also rarely used.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A senior SANDF officer reportedly told the newspaper the situation was grim.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Amid a 60 percent budget cut, it was considering selling the Gripens and not just the A109 helicopters, but all helicopter operations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Military expert Helmoed Romer-Heitman reportedly said the SAAF was suffering from government&#8217;s indecision about what it expected from the army.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;An air force without fighter aircraft is a dead duck in Africa&#8217;s military context. An army without helicopters and transport aircraft is a dinosaur in a swamp,&#8221; he was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;An army without attack and tactical transport helicopters is a lame duck. A navy without helicopters and maritime patrol planes is blind.&#8221; &#8211; Sapa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The SA National Defence Force refused to comment on Wednesday about allegations that its 18 Agusta A109 helicopters were grounded as there were no funds to operate them. &#8220;My comment is very clear: we do not discuss operational matters and [the defence force&#8217;s] state of readiness,&#8221; said SANDF spokesman Siphiwe Dlamini. According to Beeld newspaper, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=7710\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Are the SANDF&#8217;s helicopters grounded for lack of funds?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[4214,4215,4216,772],"class_list":["post-7710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-south-africa","tag-agusta-a109","tag-gripen","tag-navy","tag-sandf"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/augusts_a109lun.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7710"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7715,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7710\/revisions\/7715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}