FREE DAILY EMAIL

Date : 20/09/2006
Source: Department of Defence
Title: Lekota: Africa Aerospace and Defence 2006


Address by South African Defence Minister, Mosiua Lekota, at the official opening of Africa Aerospace and Defence 2006, Air Force Base Ysterplaat, Cape Town

The recent elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) involved the largest air operation ever carried out on the African continent. (This includes air operations conducted during World War 2).

In the first round of the elections the South African Air Force (SAAF) carried on 67 flights, 1, 921 tons of election material in 4, 732 freight pallets. This cargo was transported firstly to three hubs in the DRC and then onto 14 main centres which then delivered to 53 000 voting stations in the DRC. The aircraft used were our C130s and a range of chartered aircraft including M126 helicopters, Boeing 747, Antonov 124 and IL 76. The South African Air Force flew this material into the DRC over a period of 14 days flying day and night.

The 120 South African observers were flown out of Pretoria to Lubumbashi and Kinshasa, and to 24 main centres in the DRC covering all 11 provinces. Smaller aircraft like Citations, Cessna and King Air were used to carry the election observers their water and food. The versatility of helicopters also must be mentioned in this context. Their range extended from reconnaissance expeditions to carriers of personnel and equipment to fighter capability, all central to peacekeeping operations of one kind or another.

The size of the DRC and the huge distances to be traversed, coupled with the lack of infrastructure meant the operation had to be carried out by air. At first equipment was shipped to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and then airlifted to the DRC. Later we flew directly to the DRC. Everything had to fit into the C130 our largest carrier.

The second phase of the elections in the DRC, the election for the President started last Saturday, 16 September. We will be flying in 1,250 tons of election material on a total of 58 flights. Last month (August) we sent 38 Mambas (190 tons), 3 Lads (18 tons), 500 kilograms of signal equipment, weapons, and 1,5 tons of ammunition to the Sudan by air.

The massive transformation South Africa has been undergoing since 1994 with the introduction of democracy and the change in defence posture from offensive to defensive has led to our increasing involvement in peacekeeping operations. Whilst we have scored many successes on this front, we are also on a steep learning curve. We have found, for example, that it is easier to use the Boeing 747 than the Antonov 24 because the mouth of the cargo hold is bigger and it is therefore much easier to load freight pallets.

The equipment needed for peacekeeping ranges from the smallest items to heavy military equipment all determined by conditions on the ground. We have also found that peacekeeping extends beyond the direct mandate of 'defence' and that the involvement of other spheres of government in both the approach to the operation, the planning as well as the execution, gives the operation in its totality a much greater reach. This approach is now captured in our new draft white paper on Peace Missions.

It's not the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) that's involved in peace missions; it's the people of South Africa represented by nearly every government department.

South Africa is spending so much time and effort on peacekeeping because peace and stability are the foundation for sustainable development. Our continent of Africa has been torn apart by the greed of outside role players to access its considerable mineral wealth and natural resources. In the wake of this devastation, there is internal conflict over the shortage of resources.

We have inherited dire poverty and squalor, inadequate infrastructure if any, very little education, skills or capacity. Let's not forget that environmental harm through drought, pollution floods and other natural disasters have a severe impact on people. But equally the environmental degradation that accompanies conflict and war such as landmines, unexploded ordinance and the rusting carcasses of useless planes and tanks are an ever present danger and will take enormous time, money, training and effort to remove once and for all.

The transformation of South Africa involves amongst other things, achieving greater equality between the privileged white minority and previously disadvantaged black majority. This is seen as an important stimulator of economic growth.

One of the "cutting edge interventions" outlined in the South African government's vision 2014 is the re-positioning of the aerospace industry as a future growth industry.

This year saw the establishment of the National Aerospace Centre of Excellence. This represents the latest intervention by government to fast track the process of upgrading the South African Aerospace Industry and positioning this as part of the global aerospace supply chain. This is a national programme, sponsored and supported by the Department of Trade and Industry and hosted and managed by the University of the Witwatersrand. It represents a national collaboration between government, industry, academia and research institutions around partnership principles for the provision and co-ordination of specialised skills, programmes and services for the improved competitiveness of the South African aerospace industry.

The scope of activity is focused on the South African aerospace industry with aerospace defined as "the technology of flight in any of its forms" and includes aeronautics and space technology as well as technologies related to support systems.

The Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) includes initiatives to foster integration of the domestic aeronautics and defence supply chains with global supply chains, creating supplier clusters with well defined and internationally recognised areas of competence (e.g. composite materials and avionics), transformation and deepening of the supply chains and leveraging notably strategic defence needs to identify cardinal projects to the benefit of the domestic industry.

At the same time I must warn against strategies for our industry that might undermine our own systems design engineering and integration capabilities as a country. Our strength has been to develop missiles to reconfigure the Mirage into the Cheetah; in other words, systems engineering.

The A400M programme is a case in point linking South Africa into the global supply chain for airbus designed to maintain South Africa's well developed aerospace engineering and technical innovation expertise.

The aerospace industry has the potential for export growth, value addition and through international subcontracting arrangements, stimulates industrial innovation, competitiveness and growth further down the supply chain. Technologically we must support all efforts to reduce the global impact of emissions and energy consumption within the aerospace industry.

Based on the existing political and threat environment, the African "defence" environment has become more complex necessitating a broader scope of security operations. These include total war theatre and force projection at the one end of the spectrum to search and rescue and environmental protection on the other end. Clearly the frequency of operations in terms of peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance and logistic-related missions are increasing and will dominate the future South African National Defence Force's operational role, resulting in requirements for different products and services. In conjunction with the Department of Public Enterprises we have embarked on the transformation of the defence and defence related industries. We have started with a review of the policies guiding the defence industrial complex of South Africa.

The alignment of defence acquisition policy is critical to support the development of local defence-related industries. Acquisition policy should be linked to capital expenditure planning and technology strategy and transfer. Perhaps the emphasis should shift to considering programmes and projects (prioritised according to our overall development agenda) rather than the old fashioned concept of tailoring our needs to our budget.

Thus the changing roles of the SANDF need to be fully understood by the domestic industry. In turn the local defence-related industry requires forward information on what the SANDF will purchase to plan production accordingly. I repeat our commitment to provide clear information on capabilities, systems equipment and services required in the future.

This will enable industry to work in partnership with the defence force, plan production and develop the required technology. It is also important that defence research and evaluation expertise within various state organisations is rationalised and duplication is avoided to facilitate alignment with technology strategy and the increased transfer of technology to the local defence related industry.

Whilst physical infrastructure is the key to sustainable development in Africa, the use of the skies and space to connect the continent both physically and digitally through a variety of telecommunications and satellites is central to technological advance. Part of our defence spending must encourage the growth of our domestic aerospace industry. Without a strong service industry to maintain, repair and upgrade our aerospace and defence purchases we would be wasting our money. The aerospace industry opens up huge opportunities for us and has been identified as one of our priority areas. Flexibility, mobility and reach are our watchwords.

I would like to welcome you all to our mother city, Cape Town and to African Aerospace and Defence 2006.

I thank you!

Issued by: Department of Defence
20 September 2006

SPONSORED BY

Advanced