China shines through the clouds

The lacklustre aviation participation in AAD was most evident with the non-attendance of the United States and Russia.

The USA withdrew at the last minute, citing delays in the issuing of approvals by the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) for their aircraft. However, the SANDF disputes this.

In previous AAD Expos the USA has been a huge presence with Boeing C17 Globemasters, Boeing KC135R Stratotankers, Lockheed Martin C130J Super Hercules, the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper UAV and even a live band playing Dixie tunes on the flightline.

China and Brazil are partners with South Africa in the BRICS alliance and the absence of the Americans left the door wide open for China and Brazil to exhibit their military strategic airlifters. 

The South African Air Force (SAAF)  has a long-frustrated need to replace their 60-year-old C-130BZ Hercules fleet with modern airlifters. In 2009 South Africa cancelled its orders for the Airbus A400M, which left it with no replacement for the C-130s, which were supposed to fly until 2020.

Visitors arriving at AAD were greeted by the sight of four cannibalised C-130 airframes standing forlorn behind the hangars. The need for the SAAF to replace the C-130s is therefore evident and so the Brazilians brought an Embraer C-390 Millenium and the Chinese brought a Xi'an Y-20 Kunpeng, which was parked next to the C-390 and showed up the Brazilian’s smaller size.

While the C-390 was only on static display, China’s Y-20 was a notable airshow performer on the trade and public days, particularly in Saturday’s marginal weather, when it disappeared into the cloud base and had to break away for a return on the ILS. 

China had by far the biggest presence at the Expo, exhibiting a wide range of weapons, missiles, drones, aircraft models and small arms. Another notable exhibit was the Changhe Z-10ME attack helicopter. This arrived in the hold of the Y-20, emphasising the airlifter’s capability to transport attack helicopters with the rotor masthead intact. 

The Exhibition

Overall, the Expo reflected a steady decline in support by exhibitors. While there was the usual large presence of senior military officers and consulate employees on the trade days, there was a sense of visitors wanting to see how technology was evolving, rather than being actual buyers. This was underlined by comments by both South Africa’s president Ramaphosa and minister of defence, Motshekga. 

The decline in the expo was evident in the inability of the organisers to sell out the exhibition space. They reported 80 per cent of the stands sold, however that number may be on the inflated side as the Expo seemed smaller than previous years, when all the hangars were filled with exhibitors.

This year there were some eerily empty hangars and show stands where exhibitors just failed to arrive. Apart from the non-appearance of the USA, there were also notable absences from Russia and the Ukraine.

Despite the AAD organisers’ best efforts, the bifurcation between the military side of the show and general aviation has grown even bigger. This year general aviation occupied just a small fenced-off area on the apron – which was noteworthy for its few exhibitors, some of which were drone operators. It would seem that the annual Aero Expo that takes place at nearby Wonderboom Airport is proving a viable alternative to the defence-heavy AAD.

This year the Expo was again marked by the absence of Boeing. Airbus had a chalet, but was focussed mainly on its helicopters – perhaps indicative of how small the two major manufacturers consider the possibility of a new airliner order from SAA – or any of the other local airlines.

There were just 10 country exhibitors, of which notable ones were China, India and Turkey. While the Russian government was conspicuous by its absence, Rosoboron, the Russian defence export and import agency, had a strong presence.

Perhaps indicative of a much needed turnaround, South African state-owned arms manufacturer Denel featured strongly. The other large presence were private arms manufacturers Paramount and Milkor, which featured its very well received Milko 380 UAV. 

Missiles and rockets were prominent, particularly from Turkish manufacturer Rocketsan – but the dominant presence was UAV technology. Denel used the Expo to publicly launch its RW-UASD rotary wing UAV. In support of the launch, a fun exhibit was an intricate full-sized replica of the UAV handcrafted from beads. 

Paramount again featured the Mwari single engine reconnaissance surveillance and precision strike aircraft, which it controversially took over from original developer Aerosud. This year the Mwari put on an impressive flying display that showed off its speed, power and agility. Sales however remain elusive with some of the few Mwaris in operation seeing action in Northern Mozambique. 

The Air Show

The Expo covers three days followed by an airshow for the public. Unfortunately the weather for the first public day was poor and this probably deterred many spectators. On Saturday a low cloud base prevented all but the most determined Waterkloof-based helicopter displays, and the teams that had to come in from other airports were stood down early.

There were two welcome new displays at the airshow: the former US Navy North American T-2 Buckeye trainer which was returned to airworthiness at its base at the Chinese AVIC flight school in the remote town of Oudtshoorn, and a former SAAF Atlas Impala trainer, now privately owned. A regular at AAD is the Zimbabwean Hongdu JL-8 (Nanchang JL-8) trainer which looked somewhat tatty on static display.

After the negotiation of a last minute compromise for the maintenance contracts for its SAAB Gripen fighters in 2022, the SAAF managed to get three Gripens flying. The SAAF’s 85 Combat Flying School in Makhado brought a very impressive six-ship BAE Hawk Mk 120 display team including the Hawk painted in the colours of the South African flag. The SAAF fielded a limited two plus one Silver Falcons Pilatus PC-7 MkII formation aerobatics team.

The SAAF did themselves proud with show-stopping pyro-technical anti-missile flare displays from the Denel Rooivalk. These dramatic flares are a great favourite with the photographers and commentator Brian Emmenis was able to give them excellent forewarning.

Helicopter action was provided by a MBB/Kawasaki BK117 which was flown with verve, showing what this rigid rotor design is capable of. The SAAF Museum also came to the party with a variety of helicopters performing an aerial ballet which enthralled the cognoscenti. 

The big crowd pleaser is the ‘mini-war’ with many explosions, smoke and simulated machine gun fire. A tactical war-game operation using several multi-disciplinary teams was put through their paces. Unfortunately the prevailing wind is from the west and this means that the dust and ash from the mini war blows into the exhibitors’ chalets. 

Another crowd pleaser is the old trick of hoisting an ‘illegally parked’ car with a SAAF Atlas Oryx and then ‘accidentally’ dropping it midfield. This was carefully rehearsed with an actor who claimed the car was his and was deemed one of the best ever of these stunts. 

The ex-Swiss Air Force Hawker Hunter T.68 owned and flown by Ron Wheeldon was a rare treat. A highlight for the crowd was a finale flown by a FlySafair Boeing 737-800 in formation with the four 85 CFS Hawks.

The airshow ended with not one, but three climaxes: First the four Harvards of the Flying Lions flew a beautiful sunset display, this was followed by a Rooivalk dropping flares into the gloaming and finally the SAAF pulled out all the stops to field a nine-ship jet fly-past featuring three Gripens and six Hawks flying the Red Arrows diamond-nine formation.