Gunship
9th Apr 2003, 18:49
Aggressive head-hunting by civilian airlines was contributing to the dearth
of much needed skills and expertise in the South African Air Force, MPs
attending a portfolio committee on defence heard on Tuesday.
"In the last two to three years we have lost about 13 black pilots, in
addition to four women pilots to civil aviation... people get phoned, it's
not normal, the very aggressive head-hunting," said Air Force chief
Lieutenant-General Roelf Beukes. Beukes was briefing the committee on the
Air Force's strategic vision -- called Vision 2012 -- for the future, when
he mentioned the poaching as one of the factors impacting on representivity
in the Air Force. He said that there were four key strategic issues the Air
Force of the future needed to consider -- human resource development and
utilisation; affordability and sustainability; force preparation and force
employment; and integration of new aircraft.
"Currently 59 percent of our budget of R2,1-billion goes to personnel.
Another 25 percent goes to contracts, for example Denel. "This means there
is only 16 percent to run the Air Force -- for fuel, spares, vehicles and
radar stations," he said. The 16 percent also meant that systems integrity
had degraded and now warranted urgent upgrades and repair work at air bases
throughout the country. "We have worked out that we need about R295-million
in the airforce to achieve our goals," with perhaps decreasing the personnel
and contracts packages making up this money, he said.
Beukes said currently pilots were logging insufficient air time which
impacted on their readiness and morale. "If they can't fly, they can't
control their aircraft... and technicians can't fix aircraft if they aren't
flown." He said that by the year 2010 the Air Force wanted to fly an average
of 60,000 hours per year, and would increase flying hours by 3,000 hours a
year until this target was reached.
Plans were also afoot for an annual force preparation exercise, possibly
involving Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries.
Another area that would be targeted in the strategic vision was human
resource transformation, with a clear trend indicating that there had been a
decrease of whites in the Air Force. "In 1994 at officer level there were
only 27 blacks, but today there are 450 black officers. For the
non-commissioned officers this figure was 1400 in 1994, but is now 3700."
Beukes admitted that representivity amongst pilots, navigators, engineers
and technical personnel did not reflect the country's demographics."However,
technical apprentices in the Air Force were an area in which one could see
results, with 72 percent of all apprentices blacks... (this is) coming to
where we want to go.
"These are the people that will work on the Hawks and Gripons in about six
years time," he said with reference to the trainer and fighter jets the Air
Force has acquired as part of South Africa's multi-billion rand arms
package.
Beukes said the Air Force currently had 16 black commanding officers, and he
was "positive transformation was making progress, albeit slowly and with
some problems".
http://www.news24.com/Images/Photos/2003030915393309_hetekole.jpg
of much needed skills and expertise in the South African Air Force, MPs
attending a portfolio committee on defence heard on Tuesday.
"In the last two to three years we have lost about 13 black pilots, in
addition to four women pilots to civil aviation... people get phoned, it's
not normal, the very aggressive head-hunting," said Air Force chief
Lieutenant-General Roelf Beukes. Beukes was briefing the committee on the
Air Force's strategic vision -- called Vision 2012 -- for the future, when
he mentioned the poaching as one of the factors impacting on representivity
in the Air Force. He said that there were four key strategic issues the Air
Force of the future needed to consider -- human resource development and
utilisation; affordability and sustainability; force preparation and force
employment; and integration of new aircraft.
"Currently 59 percent of our budget of R2,1-billion goes to personnel.
Another 25 percent goes to contracts, for example Denel. "This means there
is only 16 percent to run the Air Force -- for fuel, spares, vehicles and
radar stations," he said. The 16 percent also meant that systems integrity
had degraded and now warranted urgent upgrades and repair work at air bases
throughout the country. "We have worked out that we need about R295-million
in the airforce to achieve our goals," with perhaps decreasing the personnel
and contracts packages making up this money, he said.
Beukes said currently pilots were logging insufficient air time which
impacted on their readiness and morale. "If they can't fly, they can't
control their aircraft... and technicians can't fix aircraft if they aren't
flown." He said that by the year 2010 the Air Force wanted to fly an average
of 60,000 hours per year, and would increase flying hours by 3,000 hours a
year until this target was reached.
Plans were also afoot for an annual force preparation exercise, possibly
involving Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries.
Another area that would be targeted in the strategic vision was human
resource transformation, with a clear trend indicating that there had been a
decrease of whites in the Air Force. "In 1994 at officer level there were
only 27 blacks, but today there are 450 black officers. For the
non-commissioned officers this figure was 1400 in 1994, but is now 3700."
Beukes admitted that representivity amongst pilots, navigators, engineers
and technical personnel did not reflect the country's demographics."However,
technical apprentices in the Air Force were an area in which one could see
results, with 72 percent of all apprentices blacks... (this is) coming to
where we want to go.
"These are the people that will work on the Hawks and Gripons in about six
years time," he said with reference to the trainer and fighter jets the Air
Force has acquired as part of South Africa's multi-billion rand arms
package.
Beukes said the Air Force currently had 16 black commanding officers, and he
was "positive transformation was making progress, albeit slowly and with
some problems".
http://www.news24.com/Images/Photos/2003030915393309_hetekole.jpg