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Author Topic: Demilitarized South Afrian aircraft/helicopters could there be a buyer?  (Read 7833 times)

Offline tigershark

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Can South Africa find a buyer for the demilitarized Cheetah fighters?  There are outdated Alouette helicopters and Five mark-one Impala jet trainers are up for grabs as well.   In the article I'll attached it mentions the French are interested and so are Peru, Chile and Venezuela.  I can't see why the French would be interested and Peru doesn't fly the F1 Mirage type and nor does Chile or Venezuela only Ecuador.  I wonder if the article has it's counties mixed up and Ecuador is on the maybe list?

The article I found
Want to buy a Boeing or an Impala jet?

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-08-04-want-to-buy-a-boeing-or-an-impala-jet

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Re: Demilitarized South Afrian aircraft/helicopters could there be a buyer?
« Reply #1 on: August 07, 2008, 12:25:59 PM »
Quote
For the Cheetahs (which are upgraded Mirage FI fighters), however, the French are interested and so are Peru, Chile and Venezuela.

Cheetah is not a Mirage F1, but derived from the III with similarities to the Kfir, which ruins the credibility of subsequent claims in the article a bit. Demilitarized, so they won't be bought for use by the air forces, but for parts or for museums.

French museums may be interested, Dassault may be interested to inspect them, and companies may want to try to sell parts to Pakistan. Venezuela must be interested for engine parts for their Mirave V fleet. Chile has no need for their own Mirage V anymore, and Peru... maybe as museum pieces, maybe for intel. Ecuador could use them to swap out parts on their Kfir fleet, and perhaps some Mirage F1 parts. But they're buying more Israeli Kfirs already, which have the J79 engine, so doesn't make much sense to buy demilitarized Cheetahs, unless they are really cheap.

With regards to the Impala and Alouette, they'll have a good civilian life ahead of them. I also think the Cheetahs will end up somewhere else than South America!

It's a shame to demilitarize them, they would be good for companies offering DACT opponents to the air forces.
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