Command and control (C2) is long recognised in the wider military sphere as being essential to successful operations, and this is now inherent in the minds of 37 SA Air Force (SAAF) personnel who successfully completed an airspace control primary course.
The course was presented over a 24 week period at Air Force Base (AFB) Hoedspruit where the SAAF Command and Control School is located. A Certificate Ceremony Parade was held on 11 April.
Command and Control School Chief Instructor Lieutenant Colonel Justine Randell is reported as saying the course equipped those attending with the necessary skills, knowledge and mindset to fulfil their duties as Command Post assistants and radar reporting operators effectively.
The objective of the airspace control course is to develop competency in suitable SAAF personnel for application in the wider control and command sphere. AFB Corporate Communication Officer Flight Sergeant Sebolaise Mehlape has it the Command Post assistant and radar reporting officer posts are “pivotal” to maintaining the security and operational efficiency of South African airspace as well as the SAAF.
The course, according to Lieutenant Colonel Dalton Williams, Acting Officer Commanding Air Force Command and Control, was an example of its vision to project effective education, training and development to support air operations.
Corporal Suzette du Plessis, with six years of SAAF service to her name, won the floating trophy for best academic achievement on the course. Her overall percentage was 96.77. Her first posting was to protection, moving to C2 in line with her forensic qualifications. The successful airspace control course will see her move to the Air Force Command Post at SAAF headquarters on the western side of the Pretoria central business district (CBD).
