The South African Air Force (SAAF) is the air force of South Africa, with headquarters in Pretoria. The South African Air Force was established on 1 February 1920. The Air Force has seen service in World War II and the Korean War. From 1966 the SAAF was involved in providing infantry support in a low intensity war ("The Border War") in Angola, South West Africa (now Namibia) and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). As the war progressed, the intensity of air operations increased until in the late 1980s, the SAAF were compelled to fly fighter missions against Angolan aircraft in order to maintain tactical air superiority. On conclusion of the Border War in 1990, aircraft numbers were severely reduced due to economic pressures as well as the cessation of hostilities with neighboring states. Today the SAAF has a limited air combat capability and has been structured towards regional peace-keeping, disaster relief and maritime patrol operations.
Famous quotes containing the words south, african, air and/or force:
“While the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted.”
—Flannery OConnor (19251964)
“Kitsch ... is one of the major categories of the modern object. Knick-knacks, rustic odds-and-ends, souvenirs, lampshades, and African masks: the kitsch-object is collectively this whole plethora of trashy, sham or faked objects, this whole museum of junk which proliferates everywhere.... Kitsch is the equivalent to the cliché in discourse.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“The air split into nine levels,
Some gift of tongues of the whistler”
—James Dickey (b. 1923)
“He saw, he wishd, and to the prize aspird.
Resolvd to win, he meditates the way,
By force to ravish, or by fraud betray;
For when success a lovers toil attends,
Few ask, if fraud or force attaind his ends.”
—Alexander Pope (16881744)