It is good to see in Gavin Heath’s letter (November 23) that somebody cares what the South African National Defence Force buys, but he does not seem to have read my comments closely. He writes that I did ”not even begin to address … why the politicians patently ignored the South African Air Force recommendation for the MB339 to be chosen”. In fact the bulk of my letter covered exactly that issue.
To recap: The military cost-benefit analysis was only one of several factors considered by the Cabinet. That is so in every country. The military do not always get exactly what they want if other factors are regarded as more important, and such other factors are more likely to affect a second-tier system such as a training aircraft, than the first-tier combat equipment. The non-military considerations here were the greater national benefit expected from expanded links with Britain and BAe Systems rather than with Italy and Aermacchi. Time will tell whether it was the right decision.
About the Hawk, I am sorry if I seemed to ”sing its praises”. I am not a particular fan but did want to point out the very considerable performance advantages, which I believe go a long way to offset its higher cost. The MB339, for its part, does not seem to offer much that could not be achieved by a life extension and suitable upgrade of the youngest of the air force’s Impalas. Unlike the Hawk, it has not attracted any orders from major air forces in recent years. Which is why the Italians are developing a new type to replace it. It was a good aircraft in its day, but that day has passed.
What is interesting about the air force preference for the MB339, is how this aircraft went from being dropped in March 1997 because its ”low performance cannot satisfy (the) user requirement” (”Packages” report, page 68) via being assigned a ”military value” of 69 in April 1998 compared to the Hawk’s 82 (page 84), to suddenly appearing at the top of the list in June 1998 with a ”moderated military value” of 73.93 compared to the Hawk’s 66.7 (page 90). That is quite a leap for an elderly type that has reached the end of its production life! I share Mr Heath’s interest in the evaluation details.
I may have an answer to one of Mr Heath’s questions: the Hawk was offered and is being acquired with a cockpit configured to broadly replicate that of the Gripen. I believe that was not included in the MB339 offer. If that is so, the cost of incorporating that would have increased the cost of the MB339 quite considerably.
I believe the Hawk was the best choice when all the relevant factors are taken into consideration. Helmoed-Romer Heitman, Cape Town