Letters: Cape Times
August 17, 2004
Why our backyard?
In a recent article on the Overberg Test Range in the American publication Aviation Week & Space Technology, it was reported that testing of Cruise missiles belonging to the German Air Force had recently taken place at the test range near Bredasdorp.
Furthermore, testing of similar missiles from the Italian Air Force will soon take place. These activities are part of a marketing drive by the Denel subsidiary OTB, to attract further overseas customers to the range.
The nature of a Cruise missile is such that it flies very low (30 metres) and very fast (700km/h), with the resultant deafening noise and devastating effect on bird life and mammals.
The nearby De Hoop Nature Reserve, incidentally, is closed to the public during this testing.
One therefore asks the question: "Why do European defence organisations come all the way down to the southern Cape to test their armaments?"
The answer surely is very simple: Europeans do not tolerate the this type of gross abuse of their environments.
One can almost understand the argument that armaments testing in an environmentally sensitive area is in the "national interest".
I fail to see the logic, however, in testing armaments for foreign governments and destroying our own environment and tourist industry in the process.
Gerry Cassidy
Onrus River