South Africa probably is doing this deal with an eye towards a maintenance program. They have been able to maintain plenty of Cheetah’s even though their workers aren’t normally engineer level candidates. If they can maintain these F1’s to a fair level of operational availability then this is a very good deal indeed.

I always wondered why the SAAF didn’t put the Cheetah avionics into their F1’s. The conventional F1 is such a better fighter for third world types. The Mirage III/5 programs were more setup for straightline intercepts than anything else. With Uganda and the Congoes next door to Gabon, both loaded with MiG-21’s and Mirage V’s, I’d think they’d want something to offer them more of an edge.