Gunship
17th Aug 2003, 07:07
Another major arms deal may be in the wings as the Brazilian Air Force comes window-shopping in South Africa tomorrow to look at attack helicopters and jet fighters.
If the expedition by Brazilian Air Force chief Lieutenant-Brigadier Luiz Bueno pays off, it could see Brazil purchase the troubled Denel Rooivalk attack helicopter that South Africa has battled to sell abroad.
Bueno's visit as Armscor's guest is the latest in a flurry by Brazilian defence brass and contractors over the past few months. Interest has also been expressed in armoured vehicles.
The Rooivalk appeared to have been used by the British merely as a bargaining chip at the 1996 Farnborough defence show to drive down the price of its competitor, the Boeing-made, American-operated Apache attack helicopter, which boasted a superior Hellfire missile system.
Further inquiries by Malaysia, South Korea and a Middle Eastern country, believed to be Saudi Arabia, have come to naught and the Rooivalk gained a reputation as a white elephant. A year ago, Denel wrote off R429-million on the Rooivalk, which cost an estimated R2-billion to develop.
So far, the only Rooivalks flying are the 12 stationed with 16 Squadron at the Bloemspruit Air Force Base near Bloemfontein. Their asking price is believed to be about US25-million (R183-million) apiece.
Also up for view by Bueno are Denel's two-seater Cheetah D fighter and the single-seater Cheetah C, which are due to be replaced by the British Aerospace/Saab-supplied Gripen, starting in 2006. A Cheetah's price tag is about R88-million
Denel Aviation Division group manager Theo Kleynhans said this week that " it's an air force to air force interaction: our air force is inviting theirs to flight-test the Rooivalk."
Kleynhans said the trilateral co-operation agreement in June between SA, Brazil and India - known as the Group of Three, or G3 - provided "a nice framework" for the Brazilians to window-shop SA's military wares.
He said the Rooivalk was attractive to Brazil because it could be adapted for other non-combat roles such as the protection of the endangered Amazon rainforest, search-and-rescue operations in remote areas, and the monitoring of cross-border drug trafficking.
Rooivalk programme manager Rob Jonkers agreed, saying that the Rooivalk's great strengths were its long range - crucial in Brazil, a country the size of the continental US - its night-time surveillance capabilities and its ability to operate in conditions of extreme heat and dust.
Jonkers claimed that despite its problems getting off the ground as a fledgling, the Rooivalk had matured and its upgraded Kentron Mokopa anti-armour missiles were now more accurate than the Americans' Hellfire missiles - with two kilometres extra reach.
He stressed, however, that there was "no Rooivalk deal or anything close; they [the Brazilians] have just seen something that has interested them".
Colonel Ricardo Duarte, the Brazilian Embassy's military attaché for air force and army affairs stationed in Pretoria, confirmed that Bueno was due to visit tomorrow to discuss "some subjects of mutual interest" with the Department of Defence "and one of them is the Rooivalk".
He also said that the Cheetah "is an option" because Brazil's acquisition of new-generation front-line fighters had been delayed for between three and five years following strains on the defence budget, "so the Cheetah could be an intermediate . . . solution".
"Our two ministers of defence signed an agreement a month and a half ago . . . our two air forces are making arrangements to sign a memorandum of understanding to begin co-operation on maintenance and logistical support."
On the offset agreements likely to be worked out if Brazil buys the Rooivalk and Cheetah, Duarte said: "Our idea is not to just buy it, but to share and to draw up an agreement that we could develop together." Some components would be manufactured under licence in Brazil. It was too early to say which Brazilian company could perform this role, but it has been suggested that Helibras, the Brazilian subsidiary of EADS, the European Aeronautic, Defence and Space Company, was a likely bet if Brazil struck a deal.
If the expedition by Brazilian Air Force chief Lieutenant-Brigadier Luiz Bueno pays off, it could see Brazil purchase the troubled Denel Rooivalk attack helicopter that South Africa has battled to sell abroad.
Bueno's visit as Armscor's guest is the latest in a flurry by Brazilian defence brass and contractors over the past few months. Interest has also been expressed in armoured vehicles.
The Rooivalk appeared to have been used by the British merely as a bargaining chip at the 1996 Farnborough defence show to drive down the price of its competitor, the Boeing-made, American-operated Apache attack helicopter, which boasted a superior Hellfire missile system.
Further inquiries by Malaysia, South Korea and a Middle Eastern country, believed to be Saudi Arabia, have come to naught and the Rooivalk gained a reputation as a white elephant. A year ago, Denel wrote off R429-million on the Rooivalk, which cost an estimated R2-billion to develop.
So far, the only Rooivalks flying are the 12 stationed with 16 Squadron at the Bloemspruit Air Force Base near Bloemfontein. Their asking price is believed to be about US25-million (R183-million) apiece.
Also up for view by Bueno are Denel's two-seater Cheetah D fighter and the single-seater Cheetah C, which are due to be replaced by the British Aerospace/Saab-supplied Gripen, starting in 2006. A Cheetah's price tag is about R88-million
Denel Aviation Division group manager Theo Kleynhans said this week that " it's an air force to air force interaction: our air force is inviting theirs to flight-test the Rooivalk."
Kleynhans said the trilateral co-operation agreement in June between SA, Brazil and India - known as the Group of Three, or G3 - provided "a nice framework" for the Brazilians to window-shop SA's military wares.
He said the Rooivalk was attractive to Brazil because it could be adapted for other non-combat roles such as the protection of the endangered Amazon rainforest, search-and-rescue operations in remote areas, and the monitoring of cross-border drug trafficking.
Rooivalk programme manager Rob Jonkers agreed, saying that the Rooivalk's great strengths were its long range - crucial in Brazil, a country the size of the continental US - its night-time surveillance capabilities and its ability to operate in conditions of extreme heat and dust.
Jonkers claimed that despite its problems getting off the ground as a fledgling, the Rooivalk had matured and its upgraded Kentron Mokopa anti-armour missiles were now more accurate than the Americans' Hellfire missiles - with two kilometres extra reach.
He stressed, however, that there was "no Rooivalk deal or anything close; they [the Brazilians] have just seen something that has interested them".
Colonel Ricardo Duarte, the Brazilian Embassy's military attaché for air force and army affairs stationed in Pretoria, confirmed that Bueno was due to visit tomorrow to discuss "some subjects of mutual interest" with the Department of Defence "and one of them is the Rooivalk".
He also said that the Cheetah "is an option" because Brazil's acquisition of new-generation front-line fighters had been delayed for between three and five years following strains on the defence budget, "so the Cheetah could be an intermediate . . . solution".
"Our two ministers of defence signed an agreement a month and a half ago . . . our two air forces are making arrangements to sign a memorandum of understanding to begin co-operation on maintenance and logistical support."
On the offset agreements likely to be worked out if Brazil buys the Rooivalk and Cheetah, Duarte said: "Our idea is not to just buy it, but to share and to draw up an agreement that we could develop together." Some components would be manufactured under licence in Brazil. It was too early to say which Brazilian company could perform this role, but it has been suggested that Helibras, the Brazilian subsidiary of EADS, the European Aeronautic, Defence and Space Company, was a likely bet if Brazil struck a deal.