Gripen won't be grounded: Sisulu

The defence force will find the money within its shrunken budget to keep South Africa's fleet of new Gripen fighter jets flying, Defence minister Lindiwe Sisulu says.

Sisulu said a warning in the department's annual report that the aircraft, which cost some R19.9 billion, risked being mothballed was based on a worst-case scenario if the military failed to secure extra money from Treasury, the South African Press Association reported.

"This is in its starkest form what our analysts told us if would happen if we do not have the money that was asked for," Sisulu told a media briefing in Cape Town.

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