The South African Army is slowly but surely getting new equipment, from armoured vehicles to field kitchens as it grapples with the challenge of outdated equipment.
Chief of the South African Army, Lieutenant General Vusimuzi Masondo, told journalists at a media breakfast on 11 June that “we have been grappling with the challenge of outdated equipment and have put measures in place to address this issue. We continue to make good progress on acquisition of state-of-the-art equipment for the landward forces to replace the aging equipment that at times hampers our operational effectiveness and hinders the optimal attainment of our objectives.
“The Air Defence Artillery Formation took delivery of the Starstreak Very Short Range Air Defence Missile System from our defence industry late last year to complement the 23 mm and the 35 mm ground-based anti-aircraft guns, providing the SA Army with a highly effective static ground-based air defence capability to be employed as a defensive asset for the SA Army critical installations.
“This corps will also take delivery of an upgraded battery fire control post, known as the Thutlwa, that provides air defence assets with a 120 km radius radar coverage. The South African Air Defence Artillery Formation and the South African Infantry Formation with its Badger infantry fighting vehicle, are both undergoing extensive equipment renewal that the Defence Review recommended as one of the identified milestones that needs to be addressed,” Masondo said.
A contract was placed with Denel Land Systems in September 2013 for 238 Badger vehicles in five variants, which will enter service by 2022 and partially replace the Ratel fleet, which is three decades old.
“Of course, there are other equipment renewal projects we are involved in,” such as the upgrade of the Gecko tactical vehicles in 2013; the Mamba upgrade in 2014 and the 40 mm automatic grenade launcher upgrade in 2014, according to Masondo.
Other refurbishment and improvement work on SA Army equipment has in the last several years seen R4 assault rifles upgraded (under the African Warrior programme) and upgrades to the Rooikat armoured vehicle, Olifant main battle tank and SS-77 7.62 mm machinegun.
Masondo told defenceWeb that several mission equipment projects are underway including the acquisition of a water purification system which should be commissioned in 2019; the acquisition of new engineering vehicles, which should arrive by 2016, and new portable mine detectors by 2016 under Project Pirate. New field kitchens under Project Teamster should enter service by 2017/18.
In addition to acquiring new hardware, the Army is also maintaining and bringing to life some of its ageing and unserviceable equipment that needs urgent attention. “Members of the Cuban Defence Force are in South Africa, as part of a partnership and bi-lateral military-to-military agreement to bring expertise and capacity to our shores and share ideas with our technical services personnel that would see efforts injected into the repair and maintenance of our fleet of ageing vehicles,” Masondo said.
“This intervention adds to our efforts to maintain the equipment at our disposal at optimal operational standards that ensures that our soldiers are able to meet their operational objectives, thus supporting our mandate.
“This ongoing execution of Project Thusano meant to maintain and repair our operational vehicles is beginning to yield results that would save the country millions of rands, that would have otherwise been spent procuring external service providers to maintain our vehicles. What it also brings with it is the skills capital that our technical service personnel gains from their Cuban counterparts.”
Masondo said that a huge part of the budget has been going to maintaining the Army’s vehicles, yet the Army is struggling to maintain serviceability and availability of its vehicles, hence the utilisation of Cuban skills. The South African Army has sent a group of engineers to Cuba for training.
“We have also made inroads on repairing and improving some of our facilities that have been in disrepair to ensure the comfort and safety of our soldiers by fast-tracking renovations on a number of sites across the country. A total of 22 projects in conjunction with the Department of Public Works have been completed. The projects involve renovations of buildings, maintenance of mechanical and electrical infrastructure and the erecting of security installations,” Masondo said.
Although the Army has numerous acquisition projects underway, some have been deferred, such as Projects Sepula and Vistula, aimed at replacing the Army’s light armoured vehicle and cargo truck fleets. The deferment is due to the fact that the Defence Force is looking at using the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to assist with the renewal of these fleets.
