During the Apartheid era South Africa was subjected to various economic and military sanctions by the international community.
These sanctions were one of the most significant factors that led to the end of Apartheid as the South African economy became unstable and began the slide towards collapse. The threat of this resulted in the De Klerk Government undertaking reforms such as the legalisation of the ANC and release of Nelson Mandela and the ultimate end of Apartheid.
One of the most significant individual sanctions came in 1977 in the form of UNSC Resolution 418 which imposed a compulsory arms embargo against South Africa.
This resolution had a serious impact on the South African Defence Force (SADF) who not only found a number of ships and submarines under construction abroad for the South African Navy being cancelled at the last possible moment but also found themselves locked out of international arms markets and unable to purchase modern equipment from abroad.
In particular as time went on the South African Air Force began to feel the painful effects as it was unable to procure modern fighter aircraft capable of taking on Cuban Mig's over Angola and thus was not able to guarantee air superiority over the battlefield with all its resulting consequences
To counter the effects of this the South Africans resorted to a number of alternatives. The most significant of these was the huge growth of South Africa's domestic arms industry and the development of locally designed and produced hardware such as the Atlas Cheetah fighter aircraft, Denel Rookivalk attack helicopter and a whole host of other domestically developed small arms, vehicles, aircraft, artillery and even a successful nuclear weapons programme.
What if for reasons best known to themselves while still condemning Apartheid and applying economic sanctions the international community never apply UNSC Resolution 418 or any other form of arms embargo?
How would this affect SADF in terms of how it would what equipment it would procure and the forces resulting capabilities?
Would this change SADF's performance in and the outcome of the Border War?
Despite the lack of an embargo which if any nations would actually be willing to sell to Apartheid South Africa?
Without sanctions might South Africa actually be able to achieve a viable delivery method for its nuclear weapons and what would the global effects be of a much more capable South African Nuclear deterrent?
These sanctions were one of the most significant factors that led to the end of Apartheid as the South African economy became unstable and began the slide towards collapse. The threat of this resulted in the De Klerk Government undertaking reforms such as the legalisation of the ANC and release of Nelson Mandela and the ultimate end of Apartheid.
One of the most significant individual sanctions came in 1977 in the form of UNSC Resolution 418 which imposed a compulsory arms embargo against South Africa.
This resolution had a serious impact on the South African Defence Force (SADF) who not only found a number of ships and submarines under construction abroad for the South African Navy being cancelled at the last possible moment but also found themselves locked out of international arms markets and unable to purchase modern equipment from abroad.
In particular as time went on the South African Air Force began to feel the painful effects as it was unable to procure modern fighter aircraft capable of taking on Cuban Mig's over Angola and thus was not able to guarantee air superiority over the battlefield with all its resulting consequences
To counter the effects of this the South Africans resorted to a number of alternatives. The most significant of these was the huge growth of South Africa's domestic arms industry and the development of locally designed and produced hardware such as the Atlas Cheetah fighter aircraft, Denel Rookivalk attack helicopter and a whole host of other domestically developed small arms, vehicles, aircraft, artillery and even a successful nuclear weapons programme.
What if for reasons best known to themselves while still condemning Apartheid and applying economic sanctions the international community never apply UNSC Resolution 418 or any other form of arms embargo?
How would this affect SADF in terms of how it would what equipment it would procure and the forces resulting capabilities?
Would this change SADF's performance in and the outcome of the Border War?
Despite the lack of an embargo which if any nations would actually be willing to sell to Apartheid South Africa?
Without sanctions might South Africa actually be able to achieve a viable delivery method for its nuclear weapons and what would the global effects be of a much more capable South African Nuclear deterrent?