I'll provide more context on what happened here & why. First, this contract was amongst those (incl fuel & spares) affected by Treasury's order in February to halt all tenders, which it only lifted in May albeit with additional requirements. 1/ x.com/TreasuryRSA/st…

Paula Kernan Spare a thought for those still proudly serving, too. They're keeping aircraft flying & operations going despite the severe constraints and chaos they're working under, carrying out missions and tasks that really should be impossible. Of course even they can't perform miracles.

78% of authoritarian or authoritarian-leaning countries have faced significant protests. Check out Carnegie Endowment's #GlobalProtestTracker 👇 carnegieendowment.org/publications/i…

Note who's not included in this, despite this being in our area of interest and ostensibly a strategic concern for our country. We couldn't contribute if we wanted to, as we don't have any long range maritime surveillance aircraft. Our influence shrinks accordingly.

What's so frustrating about this for the South African context is that there's so much growth potential in the South African Air Force's Gripen fleet, as this shows, but funding is so low that they haven't even received the years-old MS20 upgrade yet. It's shortsighted.

Ammunition orders should be routed through Armscor, so there's presumably an Armscor tender for this, and there should be an accompanying import permit from the National Conventional Arms Control Committee and appear in its reports. It's possible this R10m order from 2020 is it.

Another excellent annual review of the state of the South African Air Force by Dean Wingrin, who has covered it continuously longer than anyone.

dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-0…

SANDF MSDS application forms for 2024 are now up. Don't delay if you want to apply, the deadline is 28 February. Air Force: x.com/SANDF_ZA/statu… Army: x.com/SANDF_ZA/statu… Navy: x.com/SANDF_ZA/statu… Military Health Service: x.com/SANDF_ZA/statu…

The SANDF has issued a further correction on its clarification statement on Exercise Mosi II, correcting its claim that India took part in Mosi I in 2019. But the earlier statement wrongly mentioned Brazil too. Guess we need a correction on the correction on the clarification.

The SANDF has confirmed the incident and the casualties. SAAF planners have been warning about the risk of this for a long time, especially as budget cuts & withdrawals have meant that MONUSCO transport helicopters usually no longer have Rooivalk or Mi-24 escorts providing cover.

There is a lot to say about #SONA2023 but unless I zoned out for it, not a single mention, recognition or peep of the death of Sgt Mabena in the line of duty. Yet again, the government shows how little it truly cares for the defence force. Unless they are parading at SONA.

The detailed #SouthAfrica Defence & Military Veterans 2023/24 budget is out! This is a thread🧵of some of my initial findings and comments. I'll be adding to it as I go through the document. #SANDF DefenceWeb #budget2023 /1

🇲🇿🇿🇦 The terrain differs from Village to Village, most of the terrain when you are headed to the east is not as dense as when going to the South. The East consists of small trees, ditches, channelized roads, big and small Bridges #CaboDelgado

A #SAAF Oryx was hit by (12.7mm?) gunfire this morning, injuring the aircraft Commander and the medic aboard. I've waited since this morning to release more info and photos. Herewith additional info and photos. Wishing the crew a speedy recovery.

The #SouthAfrica 2024 Budget has just been tabled! Herewith a "first blush" review of the 2024/25 Defence budget as it relates to the #SANDF. Remember, CPI is 5.3%. The real military rate of inflation is far higher. Could be a long, disjointed thread! /1

I maintain that this is not a function that should be being performed by the military. It’s a blurring of the crucial civil-military lines between policing & defence, and it’s unfair to the prospective wardens. It’s also inappropriate to show photos of the contents of their bags.

I totally disagree with the interviewee. The R5bn is over three years and specifically for the DRC mission. Nothing new, previous years also had a specific allocation. Plus, this allocation does NOT cover the total cost! If the SAMIDRC mission is curtailed, the allocation is cxl.

Put another way, South Africa spends more annually on VIP security for government officials than it has on any of its foreign SANDF deployments, such as the SADC mission in the DRC. It spends more on VIP security than on maintaining the Gripens, Hawks, and Rooivalks combined.

I've been a bit quiet this week about the News24 🇿🇦 story saying there's only 6 aircraft out of 330 in the air force inventory. My colleague Dean Wingrin has always been on the money when it comes to the SAAF, and after some research and consultation, we decided to set the record