85 Combat Flying School SAAF

85 Combat Flying School
SAAF Bae Hawk Mk. 120
Active	1982 - Present
Country	South Africa
Branch	South African Air Force
Type	Jet flight-training and combat operations school
Current Base	AFB Makhado, Louis Trichardt
Motto	Detrimento Sumus (Destruction is our Business) [1]
Anniversaries	Received Unit colours 4 October 1988, Received national colours 1989
Aircraft used currently	BAE Hawk Mk.120
Engagements	SWA/Angolan conflict.[2]

85 Combat Flying School is a unit of the South African Air Force (SAAF). It is a jet flight-training and combat operations school, it was first formed in 1982 at AFB Pietersburg (It was known as Advanced Flying School from 1967).^[3] It relocated to AFB Hoedspruit on 1 January 1993 due to the closure of AFB Pietersburg.^[4] The school also has a wartime reserve role, although it has publicly been stated that the school will not be used operationally unless a very urgent need arises.^[5]

Aircraft used previously :

• Mirage IIIEZ/DZ/D2Z
• Canadair Sabre Mk.6 1975 - 1980
• Atlas Impala Mk.I/II 1972 - 2005

The school has been relocated to AFB Makhado from AFB Hoedspruit into a new purpose built facility with state-of-the-art computer-aided flight training instruments. The school shares this facility with the SAAF Gripen community.

During October 2007 there were several pilots that went solo on the Hawk Mk.120.^[6]

The squadron also participated in the annual South Africa National Defence Force preparation exercises and fired live cannon rounds and dropped live bombs. They also had a successful weapons deployment exercise to AFB Bloemspruit in 2007.

References

South African Air Force Leadership Chiefs of the Air Force Sergeants Major of the Air Force Active squadrons 2 15 16 17 19 21 22 28 35 41 44 Training and development units 68 Air School 80 Air Navigation School 85 Combat Flying School 87 Helicopter Flying School Central Flying School Test Flight and Development Centre South African Air Force College Formation aerobatic teams Silver Falcons Territorial reserve squadrons 101 102 104 105 106 107 108 110 111 Disbanded air and training squadrons 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 18 20 23 24 25 26 27 29 30 31 32 33 34 40 42 43 50 60 103 109 112 114 86 Multi-Engine Flying School 88 Maritime Training School 89 Combat Flying School Disbanded air defence squadrons 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 WW2 Wings of the SAAF 2 3 5 7 21 24 25 Bases AFB Bloemspruit AFB Durban AFB Hoedspruit AFB Langebaanweg AFB Makhado AFB Overberg AFB Swartkop AFB Waterkloof AFB Ysterplaat AFS Port Elizabeth Equipment List of current and historical SAAF aircraft List of weapon systems of the South African Air Force History History of the South African Air Force List of obsolete weapon systems of the South African Air Force South African Air Force Memorial South African Air Force Museum Military history of South Africa SAAF squadron identification codes Official website: www.af.mil.za