First real foreign order of FC-1

Cash-hungry Zimbabwe splashes out on fighter jets

HARARE Amid chronic fuel, food and currency shortages and a contracting economy, Zimbabwe has secretly placed a 200m order for fighter jets and military vehicles from China, bypassing its own state procurement board. It is not clear where the funds for the acquisitions will come from, as the army’s budget allocation is only Z815bn (about 136m), of which 69% is for pay and the rest for operations.

According to defence ministry permanent secretary Trust Maphosa, six of the jets could arrive in Zimbabwe this week. Reports say the aircraft include the FC-1 (Fighter China 1), developed recently to replace the Chengdu F-7, widely criticised by military experts for its inefficiency. With the acquisition, Zimbabwe joins Pakistan as one of China’s biggest customers for the FC-1. Apart from the 12 jets, Zimbabwe has ordered 100 military vehicles.

Defence and home affairs parliamentary portfolio committee chairman Saviour Kasukuwere has asked why the purchase of military equipment had bypassed the board. He said this lack of accountability could result in the army buying expensive equipment with a short life span. Maphosa said the purchase of Chinese military hardware was necessitated by the arms embargo imposed on Zimbabwe by European and North American countries.

Zimbabwe’s European-made fleet of military planes and vehicles has been crippled by a critical shortage of spares due to the sanctions. The army and the police have begun to phase out vehicles, planes, and other arms manufactured mostly in Europe. Faced with the stark reality of equipment shortage in the army, Kasukuwere’s committee toured defence installations and military barracks last December. After the tour he said Zimbabwe needed to look “elsewhere” for military equipment.

Apart from the effects of sanctions, Zimbabwe’s arsenal was heavily depleted after its Democratic Republic of Congo military adventure, in which it helped prop the governments of assassinated former president Laurent Kabila and his son and successor Joseph between 1998 and 2002. It was also bogged down in the Mozambican civil war, fighting alongside the Maputo government in its bid to crush Mozambican resistance movement Renamo.

Zimbabwe’s fighter jets spark fears of arms-race
Sunday Times Foreign Desk

ZIMBABWE’S order for more than 240-million worth of jet fighters from China flies in the face of a request by South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma that the country stop selling arms in sub-Saharan Africa.

According to a semi-official US defence intelligence publication, Dlamini-Zuma made the request, during a meeting of the China-South Africa bilateral forum, to head off a possible arms race on the subcontinent.

Military sources in Harare say that Zimbabwe will acquire 12 FC-1s as replacements for the Chengdu F-7s, currently based in Gweru. The FC-1, a lightweight multipurpose fighter based on Russia’s MiG-33, will provide a credible answer to the challenge posed by the 28 JAS-39 Gripen multi-role fighters that the SA government has ordered from Saab, the Swedish arms manufacturer.

According to Armed Forces Journal International, published in Virginia, US, Dlamini-Zuma’s request was at least partly aimed at protecting the interests of SA’s state-owned arms industries. But her request also “reveals that South Africa has observed a growing pattern of Chinese arms sales” in its own backyard, and provided “evidence of its serious concern about the matter”.

Yesterday Foreign Affairs spokes man Ronnie Mamoepa said he could not recall Dlamini-Zuma making such a request. He referred further queries to his department’s Asian Affairs desk, which did not answer calls.

The Zimbabwean fighter jet order also defies a 1998 appeal by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that defence expenditure in Southern Africa be frozen for 10 years at 1.5% of countries’ GDP.

Figures compiled for the SA Institute of International Affairs show that, if anything, Annan’s plea has been answered with a full-scale arms race between Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa and other countries in the region.

The South African government says it spends only 1.5% of GDP on arms. According to the institute’s figures, however, only Zambia and Swaziland have adhered to the 1.5% limit. Zimbabwe (3.4% ), Namibia (3.6% ) and South Africa (1.7% ), it says, have committed themselves to expensive military upgrades.

Looks like it’s 12 FC-1s. Good Choice.