Lt Col D J Van der Linde, Officer Commanding Combat Flying School, addressed the delegation on the function of the school. The phasing out of the Cheetah training aircraft in 2005 has created a problem concerning combat training. Students are trained on the Cheetah in preparation for flying the recently acquired Gripen combat aircraft. It takes about 2 years to complete training to fly the Gripen. The school presently has 106 students. The most senior black within the Air Force is a major, who joined in 1994. All the instructors are white, while there are 45 black and 55 white technicians that have been trained, 5 of these are women. The demographics are slowly being corrected, but much work still needs to be done. The problem related to the small seat in the Hawk aircraft is being addressed to try and accommodate all students. Almost 250 technicians resigned from the Air Force last year (2006), with most joining the private sector. Language proficiency, lack of computer skills and the type of psychometric testing done was identified as some of the major challenges faced by previous disadvantaged candidates who wanted to join the Air Force. The Air Force is under- funded and needs, at least, R1.2 billion to be used on infrastructure. Interaction to address the budget challenge is currently taking place with DENEL. 3.2 Air Servicing Unit.