The Vela Incident

‘A Banner of Knights’ —the second book in the popular ‘Dax Hunter Files’ —is set during the first half of the 1980s. Amidst a re-escalation of Cold War tensions and neoconservative economic shifts, the mood of that decade was characterized by the combative ‘Evil Empire’ rhetoric so typical of the Reagan-Thatcher era. With a few authorial liberties here and there, I used that political landscape as a backdrop for the furtherance of the Dax Hunter story. When I was asked to describe my book’s genre, an enthusiastic publicist argued that the term ‘faction’ —a blend of fact and fiction—was more apropos than my initial response, ‘historical fiction.’

While previous South African regimes had long denied the existence of a fully operational nuclear weapons program, former President FW de Klerk surprised the world by announcing that his country had not only developed its own nuclear weapons but was now going to dismantle them in accordance with the terms of the international Nuclear Non-Proliferations Treaty.

In March of 1993, while addressing a special session of the South African Parliament, members and journalists alike were taken aback when de Klerk’s much-anticipated constitutional reforms announcement was instead upstaged by his somewhat nuclear bombshell.

All of this—and much more besides—was perfect fodder for my second book, ‘A Banner of Knights’.

FACT: On 22nd September 1979, a satellite circling high above the Antarctic detected an unusual flash in the Southern Ocean. More than a decade earlier, the USA had launched a fleet of satellites with the sole purpose of monitoring compliance with the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban. It was known as the Vela Satellite System.

US National Security Archives suggest that this 1979 detonation—now known as the ‘Vela Incident’ —was the culmination of a secret nuclear project between South Africa and Israel.

While researching this and other shady international deals, I unearthed the coordinates of a secret nuclear testing facility deep in South Africa’s Kalahari Desert. It was known, rather ominously, as Vastrap, or ‘Trample’ in English. From the mid-70s to the late 80s, South Africa was locked in both a kinetic and an ideological war against Soviet communism. With spies everywhere, the South Africans valued secrecy almost as much as they valued die vaderland—the fatherland itself. Hundreds of miles from civilization, Vastrap was the ideal location to conduct these clandestine tests.

I am eager to find a former South African military intelligence officer who might be willing to share how an asset of the avowed enemy—a Soviet MiG 21 fighter jet—came to be in the possession of the South African government at the height of the Cold War? Since its mysterious acquisition, this jet has stood as a gate guard to a nondescript encampment in the middle of a vast, inhospitable desert.

Sadly, in the eight years since I last checked the Google Earth image, the old aircraft has either fallen prey to souvenir hunters or, more likely, the ravages of time and weather. Either way, the last remnants of the once formidable fighter aircraft are still discernable at these coordinates:

27° 50' 24'' South; 21° 35' 55'' East