Posted on 07/23/2010 8:41:20 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
South Africa: U.S. 'Smart' Bombs for Gripen Aircraft
Julius Baumann
23 July 2010
Johannesburg — THE Department of Defence has awarded US aerospace group Raytheon a contract to supply Paveway 2 laser-guided air-to-ground bombs for the South African Air Force's (SAAF) Gripen aircraft.
This marks the first major sale of US defence equipment to SA in more than 25 years.
The US group will provide the air force with laser-guided bomb kits that transform dumb bombs into precision- guided munitions for operational tests and evaluations on the new Gripen fighter fleet.
The new bombs are due for delivery next year.
The sale was negotiated with the assistance of South African defence group Atlantis Corporation and, in addition to the weapons, Raytheon will provide air- and ground-crew training.
Helmoed Römer-Heitman, South African correspondent for Jane's Defence Weekly, said yesterday the contract was not entirely unexpected.
"The SAAF was faced with a large cost from Saab to convert the Gripen fleet to allow it use a locally manufactured air- to-surface bombs.
"So the SAAF elected to acquire an off-the-shelf, Nato standard bomb that allowed it to proceed with the Gripen's operational test and evaluation programme without incurring further costs ," said Mr Römer-Heitman.
Harry Schulte, vice-president of Raytheon's Air Warfare Systems product line, said that the combat-proven Paveway family of weapons was "integrated on more than 22 aircraft and serves 41 nations around the globe, making this weapon the ideal choice for the warfighter".
It is not the first time that the SAAF has used an off-the- shelf solution, after having bought the Iris-T air-to-air missile, currently used on the Gripen, from German group Diehl BGT Defence.
Mr Römer-Heitman said this system would also, in time, be replaced by A-Darter, a locally designed and manufactured air-to-air missile which was close to the end of its development programme.
Great then will send them to Mugabee so he can blow up peasants more accurately.
Great they will send them to Mugabee so he can blow up peasants more accurately.
Don't exclude them; that'd be racist.
You will be happy to know we do not even use monies to fund participation by Zimbabwaian military to ANYTHING...so relax. SAAF needed this and the future holds not only more sales but a lot more of partnership that is good for both.
Nothing we do stops SAAF from transferring the equip. to Zimbabwe.
Wrong...Having worked in the Embassy in Pretoria I can tell you that you are very wrong.
Fair enough.... but we shall see...
I should have said....I am not trying to poke you in the eye... before I said you are wrong...My apologies for being so direct. The fact is that while SA is not our greatest friend (ANC) and they many times act against our interest, they obey the end user agreements with us. You would be quite pleasantly surprised as to how good our relationship is on many levels.
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