The long-running dispute between Denel and Draken International over the delivery of former South African Air Force (SAAF) Cheetah fighters appears to be nearly over.<\/p>\n
On 24 August, Draken international and Denel notified the United States Florida Middle District Court, Tampa Division, that they had reached an agreement in mediation to resolve all claims in the court action in their entirety.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe parties are currently finalising a binding mediated term sheet reflecting the material terms of their agreement. Within five business days after execution of the binding mediated term sheet, the parties will file a joint motion to dismiss this action without prejudice,\u201d the court filing read.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin five business days after completion of all obligations under the term sheet and resulting settlement agreement, the parties will take all steps necessary to obtain an order dismissing this action with prejudice. The parties therefore respectfully request that the Court vacate all pending deadlines and hearings,\u201d the notice concluded.<\/p>\n
In essence, Denel and Draken are telling the judge in the court case they are part of that they have reaching a settlement between themselves, and no longer need to continue the trial. Once the terms of the final settlement are agreed, they will ask the judge to dismiss the lawsuit without prejudice, meaning that either side could still refile the lawsuit if either one breaks the terms of the agreement.<\/p>\n
In August last year Draken International sued Denel Aeronautics in the Florida Middle District Court for breach of contract over an alleged failure to fulfil a $35.2 million sale agreement for Cheetah aircraft. In 2017, Draken International ordered 12 ex-South African Air Force Cheetah jets from Denel for adversary air training.<\/p>\n
The complaint, brought by Sipson Thacher & Bartlett and Stearns Weaver Miller Weissler Alhadeff & Sitterson, alleges that Denel only delivered three Cheetahs over seven years, owing Draken $7.1 million in advance payments plus damages. Draken apparently paid Denel $12.7 million under the project.<\/p>\n
In its latest annual report for 2024\/25, Denel said the original October 2017 contract was worth $29.3 million and included the delivery of 12 serviceable aircraft as well as logistics support and spare parts.<\/p>\n
Draken made a February 2018 pre-payment, and three aircraft and spares were subsequently delivered in a transaction worth $5.9 million, leaving $19.8 million outstanding, according to the Denel annual report.<\/p>\n
Denel Aeronautics delivered the first two refurbished Cheetah fighters (a single-seater and a dual-seater) to Draken International in October 2019 under Project Dragon. The third aircraft is believed to have been delivered in mid-2021.<\/p>\n
In October 2020 the contract was amended, with a value of $35.2 million, covering seven serviceable aircraft, \u2018as is\u2019 aircraft (most likely two non-flyable aircraft), spares, test benches, and equipment.<\/p>\n
DefenceWeb understand that deliveries were hampered by delays at Denel in getting the aircraft flyable again (notably replacements for ejection seat components), followed by capacity issues related to state capture, and the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
In 2021 Draken lost the US Air Force contract that the Cheetahs were intended for, and any desire by either side to complete the programme ended, according to African Defence Review Director Darren Olivier. Only three Cheetahs were shipped to the US, but none flew as Denel could not at the time (but could later) support the ejection seats. The rest of the aircraft remain at Denel.<\/p>\n
In December 2025, Denel launched a counter-claim against Draken in the Cheetah matter for unspecified damages, saying Draken was at fault for no longer wanting the jets.<\/p>\n
In its most recent annual report, Denel said it would like to carry on completing the contract to Draken.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The long-running dispute between Denel and Draken International over the delivery of former South African Air Force (SAAF)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[273],"tags":[18,19,17,133,461],"class_list":["post-665514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117191304970346731","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}