[Dear Mr Neethling,
Thanks for the excellent links below. I love that innovative French vehicle design. Extremely interesting stuff…

Its interesting that you mention the links to foreign people. It is possible that the S.African Govt hired experts from around the world to help.

I do know that in the 1980’s, that Israeli engineers were here in S.Africa and the Cheetah is probably the result of their work. I do recall that Israel was working on a 100% “homegrown” fighter which became too costly, and these engineers were from that project.

It seems as if everyone is borrowing from everyone else’s ideas.

I am fascinated by the links to the German rockets and “gliding bombs”… All those designs in those links are totally new to me. I am very impressed indeed. At the Military Museum in Johannesburg is one of the ME262 jets which Germany produced in WWII. It was one of my favourite exhibits and I had a good hard look at that excellent weapon admiring the workmanship. What amazing vehicles they were for their time.

But the most underrated German weapon of WWII, is the V1 – the first “Cruise Missile”. In a book I have by British Military expert, Professor Keegan – Keegan writes that the V1 was probably the most incredible strategic weapon ever produced by Germany. It was far superior to the V2 in terms of what it could have achieved. The V1 had a warhead of almost 1 ton – and it was produced extremely cheaply. If the Allies had not managed to smash their launching pads… things could have been different. Keegan reckons that if the German Govt had unleashed tens of thousands of V1s on Britain, they could have smashed Britain into the ground despite Allied air superiority even then. Jan]

Hello Jan,
You wrote the following under the heading œ[Pic] Turkey wants to purchase S.African Rooivalk attack Helicopter:
“There is another S.African weapon which I personally love to bits. You don’t see it often. It is called the Rooikat (Red Cat). It is a 6-wheeled armoured vehicle… but man… its the most impressive vehicle I’ve ever seen.”

I used to enjoy that design as well. By accident, whilst reading a German publication on tanks, I discovered the design had French origins (Panhard EBR – 1951). Here is a link: http://www.chars-francais.net/archives/ebr75….br>
This French recon tank had the curious feature in that the central wheels, which were of solid metal, could be retracted to allow high-speed travel on roads. It seems they were used in Algeria. They could reach 105 km/h, very similar to the Rooikat’s 120 km/h. Armament ranged from 75-90 mm, similar to the Rooikat’s 105mm.

It seems that most of the hardware designs in the old SA had foreign sources. Such as the G5 which was developed by Gerald Bull (Canadian who worked at NASA “ the chassis was similar to an Israeli aka Russian design, see http://www.israeli-weapons.com/weapons/artill…http://www.israeli-weapons.com/weapons/artillery/towed_guns/m-71/M-71.html; http://www.enemyforces.com/artillery/giatsintb.htm), or the nuclear technology which originated from Israel, and theirs from France. I wonder where the Rooivalk designs come from? Maybe: http://www.rotorhead.org/military/a129.asp;ht… Most of the SA rocketry was of Israeli origin (of course theirs from the USA which took the original designs from the Germans after WWII), see http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/A4_(Rakete);http://www.waffenhq.de/flugzeuge/ruhrstahl_x.htm; http://www.kheichhorn.de/html/body_henschel_hs_293.html; http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henschel_Hs_117; http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasserfall_%28Rakete%29; http://www.ww2guide.com/ww2sams.shtml. Or the Cheetah which were Kfir (Israeli: http://www.israeli-weapons.com/weapons/aircra…airframes fitted with Dessault Mirage engines.

Most probably the only original armament emanating from South Africa is the CASSPIR, which had its origins in the Rhodesian anti-mine designs. I think the procurement department should get most of the fame, not the developers who basically modified foreign designs.

VERENA Replied:
Hi, I will send your comment on to Jan.