Minister handed over Gripen

In a ceremony at Africa Aerospace and Defence show (AAD), South African Gripen fighters were welcomed into the South African Air Force today. 

Image: South African Gripen Fighters were welcomed into the South African Air Force today. Photo by: Frans Dely.

9/17/2008 | On the first day of the biennial Africa Aerospace and Defence show, being staged at AFB Ysterplaat in Cape Town, South Africa, history was made when Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota officially handed over the first of the country’s fleet of new generation Gripen fighters to Lt.Gen.Carlo Gagiano, Chief of the South African Air Force.  

Fly past of four Gripen

The occasion was marked in style with a fly past of four of South Africa’s fleet of twenty-six Gripen fighters, with the backdrop of Cape Town’s famous Table Mountain.

Following the fly past, the four aircraft landed at Ysterplaat and taxied to a position in front of Defence Minister Lekota, Lt. Gen. Carlo Gagiano and other VIP guests from the Government, Air Force and industry and the media. The pilots, including South Africa pilots Musa Mbhokota and Charl Coetzee, then de-planed and joined in the ceremony which saw Gen. Gagiano officially accept the first Gripen fighter from Minister Lekota.

South Africa has ordered twenty-six Gripen fighters of the latest C/D standard, 9 two-seaters and 17 single seaters. Deliveries commenced this year, with four aircraft already in-country, and the remainder scheduled to be delivered progressively until 2012.