President Robert Mugabe’s government has acquired six fighter jets ”to deal with any challenges”, state radio reported on Wednesday.
It did not disclose the supplier or the price tag, but the report first named them as the ”K-8” and then the ”K-fighter”.
The aircraft appear to be the K-8 advanced jet trainer, a Chinese copy of the British Aerospace BAE ”Hawk”, said Michael Quintana, former editor of Africa Defence Journal.
The Hawk was supplied to Zimbabwe by then Conservative British prime minister Margaret Thatcher soon after independence in 1980. But current Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Labour slapped an embargo on spare parts in 2000 to protest human rights abuses.
Quintana said Egypt bought K-8 trainers from China at a price tag of $20-million each.
”If the country had to save up for these, no wonder we are experiencing shortages of petrol,” Quintana said.
The radio broadcast quoted the air force’s acting director of operations, Group Captain Builtin Chingoto, as saying the new fighters are meant to keep up with fast-changing technology.
”They will go a long way to improve the operations of our air force in order to defend the country’s air space and territorial integrity,” he said. ”They will enable the force to deal with any challenges.”
Mugabe described Britain as ”this enemy country” at the weekend and said he is continuing to wage what he called a chimurenga or civil war against the remaining 20 000 whites for control of natural resources, particularly land.
Claiming a two-thirds majority in the March 31 parliamentary elections, he said ”the nation had mobilised through the ballot box to repulse imperialism”.
Zimbabwe has been in serious economic crisis since Mugabe dispatched 14 000 troops backed by tanks and aircraft to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 1998 and in February 2000 began seizing 5 000 white-owned farms.
About 70% of Zimbabweans live in absolute poverty, with five million of its 11,6-million people dependent last year on international food aid. Hospitals lack medicines and food, while schools lack desks, books and writing materials.
Official figures showed Zimbabwe’s inflation rate fell to 123,7% in March, down 3,5% from February, the government-controlled daily The Herald said in a report on Wednesday.
The K-8 flies under the speed of sound at 950kph and has limited combat ability. It has already been supplied to the Namibian and Zambian air forces, Quintana said.
He said that while engaged in the DRC civil war, Zimbabwean forces acquired three MIG-23 interceptor fighter-bombers from Moammar Gaddafi’s Libyan government. They have been seen at recent ceremonial fly-pasts in Harare. — Sapa-AP