A new era dawned for both AFB Makhado and for the rest of the South Africa Defence Force on Wednesday, May 24, with the arrival of the first Hawk MK 120 Lead-in-Fighter-Trainer (LIFT) aircraft at the base.

The arrival of the aircraft is a key milestone in Project Winchester, which was mandated to replace the ageing fleet of Impala aircraft in the late 1990’s. It marks the culmination of six years of development, engineering, production, assembly, test and evaluation, logistical support and programme management to design, build ship, assemble, test and prepare these aircraft for delivery to AFB Makhado. This was done through, amongst others, the co-operation between the South African Defence Force, BAE (British Aerospace) Systems and Armscor.

The Hawk MK 120 has a new Rolls Royce engine and a newly developed local avionics suite onboard and for both of these systems South Africa is the launch customer. This alone underpins the scope of the project task, highlighting a high degree of development and integration with many challenges.

Over the next 18 months, the project team, in conjunction with the South African Air Force (SAAF), will implement the Hawk system into the prepared environment at AFB Makhado. The SAAF will conduct operational tests and evaluations within this environment. To date, an initial cadre of ground crew instructors have successfully completed ground training under the governance of BAE Systems and are ready to complete the aircraft training with the arrival of the first aircraft. Similarly, an initial cadre of aircrew instructors have completed a conversion flying course on the aircraft. It is said that the Hawk Project is progressing well and is on track to meet the system handover scheduled to the South African Airforce in January 2008.

Apart from the Hawk MK 120 to be stationed at AFB Makhado, the Gripen fighter aircraft will also be stationed at the base, following the phasing-out of the Cheetahs of 2 Squadron. At present, the base is in the process of updating many structural designs to accommodate the new arrivals.