The long-awaited Gripen C single-seat fighters have finally arrived at AFB Makhado outside Louis Trichardt.

The Gripens made their public debut last Friday at AFB Makhado, when they arrived from AFB Yysterplaats. South Africa bought a fleet of 26 of these fighter jets from Sweden, comprising nine dual-seater Gripen D and 17 single-seater Gripen C aircraft.

These fighter jets, wearing South African Air Force (SAAF) livery and bearing the South African flag, arrived by ship in Table Bay in February this year. The aircraft were then taken to AFB Ysterplaats, near Bredasdorp, where they were tested and made flight ready.

According to Maj Wessie van der Westhuizen of AFB Makhado, the Gripens will play a key role in the air force’s plans to safeguard the airspace above soccer stadiums during the 2010 Soccer World Cup. At least four Gripen C fighters are likely to be in the country for the World Cup, joining the Gripen D aircraft already in service.

In November 1998, it was announced that the old Cheetah C and D aircrafts would be phased out as part of the new defence equipment package and replaced by the Saab-Bae Systems supplied Gripens.

Gripen is the first of the new generation, multi-role combat aircraft to enter service. By making use of the latest available technology, it is capable of performing an extensive range of air-to-air and air-to-surface operational missions and employing the latest weapons.

The Gripen C single-seater features a digital electronic flight control system (fly-by-wire) electronic cockpit displays, a FADEC engine providing high thrust-to-weight ratio, modern impulse Doppler Radar and many more features. It further includes a state-of-the-art, fully encompassing training system, centred on a computer-based training system (CBTS) and two squadron-level mission trainers.

While the Gripen D dual-seater aircraft can be used in combat, it is generally used as a training aircraft. It is fully enhanced for all levels of training, from initial conversion training to advance operational and technical training of fighter pilots. 2 Squadron’s fleet of Gripen D aircrafts at AFB Makhado was brought up to strength with the arrival of the final two aircraft in July last year.

According to AFB Makhado’s Col. Schalk van Heerden, delivery of the remaining 15 Gripen C aircrafts will be made throughout the rest of the year and will be completed by the end of 2011, with full-system handover to the SAAF at the beginning of 2012.