A brief history of fighter jets in African armed conflicts

Richard Moleofe | Friday February 26, 2016 16:40

It started with the British manufactured Strike Masters in 1987. This military organisation was due to celebrate its first 10 years of existence and the commanders were under pressure to display some level of sophistication at the event.

However, the Strike Master was at the time an outdated piece of military hardware. They were bought from Kuwait which at the time was going through an upgrade of their military equipment. Beside the fact that they were outdated, they were ideal for the anticipated future conflict in Africa. This aircraft plays its role best on counterinsurgency operations. It is slow for a fighter jet and but has an advantage of doing tree level flying and avoid early detection by both radar and humans.

The undoing thing with this aircraft was its technical aspects.

Because of its age, maintenance was becoming unbearable for a third world economy like ours. Some of the decisions our leaders arrive at can be so ridiculous. At the time Kuwait sold Botswana the aircraft, petrol was free in that Arab country. That says a lot about the level of their economy at the time.

Botswana purchased the jets and they became so high in maintenance. But how could we afford to keep the aircraft when the Kuwaitis were feeling the heat? According to secret documents, BDF latter sought to buy four more such jets from Kenya. However, that deal did not have the blessings of British Aerospace who were the manufacturing company. The idea was to cannibalise the Kenyan jets for spares that were becoming increasingly difficult to find in the market. All of the Strike Masters that remained were sold to private museums in Europe before they could see action.

At the time of the Strike Master, the existing threat in this part of the continent was South Africa. Our neighbours had the Impala which was a little superior to the Strike Master. The impala saw action in Angola.

It was pitted against the MIGs. The MPLA government of Angola was fighting against UNITA which was a little above a guerrilla group because of the manner in which they were armed. There is no other place in Africa either than Quito Cuanavalle were there has been so much action in as far as the use of jet fighters is concerned.

Going further north, the Ugandans often used their MIGs on cross border incursions into neighbouring Kenya and Tanzania.

 Idi Amin, who was president for life at the time tried to persuade the Israeli government to sell him American-made Phantoms. When they asked him what he was going to do with them, he said; “to bomb Kenya and Tanzania.” Had he been given the opportunity, Amin would have done exactly that. During the 1976 raid on Entebbe, the Israelis annihilated the entire fighter jet fleetof the Ugandan military. This was part of the deal with the Kenyans. The Israelis were returning a favour for being allowed to refuel their Hercules C130 fleet used in the raid.

One of the longest running conflicts in Africa has been the civil war in Sudan. The Sudan Airforce has repeatedly used their MIGs to bomb the SPLA.

However, the use of this aircraft did not give the government forces any edge over the SPLA. The country was later split into two because neither side was winning.

Similarly, fighter jets had a very limited role during the Biafra War. This was a brutal Nigerian civil war that took almost a million lives in the late 1960s. Even in this conflict, fighter jets failed to turn the tide. 

The Egyptian Air Force is currently the biggest in Africa. Among their inventory sits F16 fighter jets which are far much superior to any other in the continent.

 The last date when the Egyptians used fighter jets was in 1973 in the Yom Kippur war. This was, to a limited degree because in no time the Israelis destroyed every one of their aircraft.

There is sufficient evidence that fighter jets are a little irrelevant in African conflicts. The only time they have influenced the direction of a war was in Angola. This speaks loads and loads when we consider the argument for and against the procurement of fighter jets.

The Iran/Iraq war was basically decided on the application of fighter jets at different roles. Operation Desert Storm is a typical example where the use of fighters was so significant. The war would not have turned out the way it did if fighters were not deployed, and remember that this conflict was not in Africa.

For facts given above, Botswana does not have sufficient reasons why they should be buying fighter jets. What role are fighter jets going to play in the scenario of our security environment in Southern Africa?

The subcontinent has become more peaceful since the fall of apartheid and the end of the Cold War. Botswana needs helicopters for the military. These could be transport and attack helicopters. Our greatest security challenge at the moment is to arrest the problem of poaching. Fighters can never be engaged in any role when fighting with poachers.

Helicopters can be used in various roles during peacetime. Besides poaching they can be deployed during floods and other disasters. Furthermore, the procurement of helicopters will help Botswana to have an edge on UN Peacekeeping operation.

BDF excelled during the time they did work for UN in both Mozambique and Somalia. This was at the time when the military organisation was using some very rudimentary military equipment. Helicopters will become ideal for future BDF missions.