Government has asked Lt Gen Carlo Gagiano to serve another term as Chief of the South African Air Force.
Gagiano should have wrapped up his term at the end of October.
He has confirmed he has been asked to stay on for an undetermined period. “It is an open-ended contract,” he says. “But I`ll have to retire when I reach 60, which will be in 2011.”
Gagiano was appointed as Chief of the Air Force on 1 March 2005. The general joined the SAAF in 1968 and qualified as a pilot on the Aermacchi Impala in December 1969 before entering the Air Force`s fighter stream.
In 1985 he completed the South African Air Force’s Senior Command and Staff Course and was subsequently appointed as the Officer Commanding 3 Squadron, operating the Dassault Mirage F1CZ aircraft. In 1989 he was appointed as the Officer Commanding 89 Combat Flying School where the Denel Cheetah D aircraft was just being introduced.
He was military attaché to Israel from 1991 to January 1994. He completed the SANDF Joint Staff Course in November 1994 and was then transferred to Central Flying School Langebaanweg as the Officer Commanding. After a four-year tour at Langebaanweg, he was transferred to the Air Force Office in December 1998, promoted to Brigadier General and appointed as Inspector General of the Air Force on April 1, 1999.
On 1 November 2000 he was promoted to Major General and appointed as Chief Director Operations Development at the Joint Operations Division, responsible for defence capabilities, joint force employment strategy, joint command and control and joint doctrine.
After a three-year tour at the Joint Operations Division he was transferred back to the South African Air Force as Chief Director Air Policy and Plans, responsible for Air Force policy, capabilities, strategy and resource allocation.
