The NDC government is spending over GH¢2.4 billion to purchase one luxurious presidential plane and four helicopters for the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF). The previous NPP administration strongly opposed such purchases.
The government plans to spend approximately GH¢13 billion over the next few years to retool GAF, with this being the first set of purchases.
Last week, parliament authorized a sale and purchase agreement between the government of Ghana and Dassault Aviation, France, for an amount of $60.68 million (roughly GH¢691,752,000) to acquire one Falcon 6X Executive Jet (presidential jet).
Additionally, a contract of €125.97 million (about GH¢1,759,800,000) was approved by Parliament between the Ghanaian government, represented by the Ministry of Defense, and Airbus Helicopters (SAS), France, for the supply of one H160 and three H175 helicopters for the Ghana Air Force.
The total cost of the four helicopters and the presidential jet is GH¢2,451,552,000.
A year ago, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ranking Member of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, declared that his party would not support the acquisition of any new presidential plane because the current one is suitable for its intended use.
“Let me serve notice that we on the NDC side in Parliament, we have discussed extensively amongst ourselves, we are not going to support this purchase, the purchase of a new aircraft, because of several reasons,” he said.
1. The current presidential jet is fit for purpose as President George Weah has told us in our faces. It is very fit for purpose and there is nothing wrong with it.
2. The current presidential jet, if you read the Hanzard of 19th March, 2008, we were told by the then Defence Minister who is now National Security Minister, Hon Kan-Dapaah that our jet has a 20-year lifespan after it arrives. It arrived in October 2010, it’s done barely 11 years, next month is 11 years. We are nowhere near 2030 where you can start discussing,” Mr Ablakwa stated in an interview with TV3’s Roland Walker a year ago when the NPP government presented aircraft purchase agreements to Parliament.
The chairman of the Denfence and Interior Committee of Parliament, Mr. James Agalga, presented the committee’s report and urged the House to endorse it.
He stated that Article 210 of the Constitution requires the Ghana Armed Forces to always be combat-ready in terms of both troops and equipment.
According to him, numerous platforms are currently grounded because of significant maintenance issues, and a sizable section of the GAF fleet has reached senior age.
In this sense, the state must periodically provide the Ghanaian Armed Forces with sufficient, cutting-edge equipment. In order to guarantee safety, efficiency, and strategic mobility for both national leadership and military operations, the purchase of new aircraft is also a component of the Ghana Air Force’s larger retooling and comprehensive modernization agenda, according to Mr. Agalga, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Builsa North.
He clarified that although the initial cost may be high, compared to aging feet, new aircraft have lower long-term maintenance costs.
He said that the suggested helicopters and aircraft were made to be highly adaptable, providing exceptional performance in humanitarian operations, logistics assistance, and executive and troop transport.
“Additionally, these aircraft have extended range, payload capacity, and modern avionics, which gives them an edge over the previous generation, which will enable rapid deployment in support of GAF’s counterterrorism, border, and maritime security operations as well as executive travels,” he remarked.
Mr. Agalga emphasized that the long-term financial advantages of acquiring the new fleet of aircraft exceeded the related expenses.
“It was evident that continued reliance on the ageing Mi-17 helicopter fleet and the Falcon 900EX aircraft has become financially unsustainable and operationally inefficient for the Ghana Air Force. Over a projected 15-year service life, the total lifecycle cost of the proposed new fleet is estimated to be 30-40 per cent lower than the cost of maintaining and operating the existing ageing aircraft,” he stated.
The ranking member of the defense committee, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, stated that the minority supported retooling initiatives to improve the Ghana Air Force’s air capabilities while endorsing the move for the House to accept the contract agreements.
He claimed that the Minority was supporting it in the best interests of the country since it was necessary in the past, present, and future.
He did, however, recollect how the NDC Minority had previously used propaganda to thwart any attempts to arm the GAF.
Rev. Fordjour, the MP for Assin South, said, “Mr Speaker, enough of the politics, and I believe that this is a new dawn and a time that has come that the opposition side of Parliament is doing the patriotic thing of supporting what is good for the state and what is good for the Ghana Armed Forces. We will put the safety of the President as a priority so that he can safely travel and conduct business on behalf of the state and return safely in a most patriotic way.”
Source: newsthemegh.com