South African Badger behind schedule as SAAF Hawks lose A-Darter

[Zarvan]

Procurement of the Denel Badger, seen here at the African Aerospace and Defence Show in 2018, is significantly behind schedule, according to Armscor. Source: IHS Markit/Patrick Allen

South African procurement agency Armscor has revealed that the country's acquisition of Patria AMV armoured fighting vehicles has experienced significant delays, while the South African Air Force (SAAF) has scrapped a planned requirement for the A-Darter missile for its BAE Systems Hawk 120 fleet.

According to Armscor's 2017/18 Annual Report, the acquisition of the Patria AMV systems - built under licence by Denel through Project Hoefyster and known locally as Badger - has already experienced delays in the development stage at Denel Land Systems. Key to these delays, Armscor says, were "the completion of the software development, [and] the delays in the manufacture of the Fire Support, Missile, and Mortar variant Engineering Development Models".

The delays have subsequently impacted the programme's Industrialisation Phase, leading to an overall slippage of 32 months in the programme's execution by mid-2018. The first battalion of the vehicles to the SA Army will be delayed by at least 17 months, despite the efforts of Denel to catch up with the production schedule. However, the programme has been expanded from 238 vehicles to 244.

The broader supply chain problems, such as the collapse of sheet metal supplier VR Laser into liquidation, have added to the delays. The ongoing liquidity crisis at Denel has also compounded interruptions to the programme, as Denel has had difficulty in sourcing subsystems and components from suppliers.

Overall, the transfer of technology from Finland has been completed, with the welding and painting of the South African Platform Hulls completed, and the first 15 Production Model Platform Hulls finished.

The first four pre-production models of the Section Vehicle turrets were also completed in November 2017, with one being mated to a Patria-built hull for firing trials in February and March.

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