Botswana wants Tejas Mk-1A to replace its Canadair CF-5A, refused Korean FA-50 offer way back in 2018

Source : Indian Defence Updates (IDU)

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Botswana Defense Force Air Wing has started talks with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to procure an unspecified number of Tejas Mark 1A fighter jets to replace its aging fleet of 10 F-5A and 5 F-5D trainers.

Botswana Defense Force wanted to procure 12 second-hand SAAB Gripen in 2017 at $1.7 billion dollars but had to drop plans due to the high price of the Gripen and opposition of the deal from political opponents, domestic media, and defence analysts inside Botswana itself.

South Korea offered to sell its FA-50 in 2018, to which HAL has lost deals twice or thrice in Malaysia, Egypt and may be Argentina too, but Botswana military leadership rejected the proposal saying that operational capabilities of KAI FA-50 is not comparable to Gripen, which is absolutely correct. Only Tejas Mk-1A can match Gripen in many of its capabilities at cheap price.