Please note the following is an opinion piece posted on an Internet forum:

It's definitely a NATO mission, with no UN involvement whatsoever. With regards to the NATO Treaty, the way I read it is that it does not prohibit exercises and operations outside the north Atlantic area, but rather it specifies that such actions have be undertaken for the sake of the immediate security of NATO's members. Thus, Article 5 can only be invoked if one of the NATO members are attacked in the North Atlantic area.

That's why, for example, the Argentinian attack on the Falklands did not cause the invocation of Article 5, whereas September 11th did. It's also why NATO is active in Afghanistan and the Arabian sea, as its members regard the terrorism in the region as being a direct and immediate threat to them, thus necessitating actions to remove the threat in full compliance with the Treaty.

That has something to do with this cruise. In part, it's a flag-showing cruise with some surveillance thrown in, combined with a show of force around the Horn of Africa on the return trip. NATO is becoming increasingly involved in African missions, by providing airlift for the AU missions in Darfur and Somalia, so it makes sense to get NATO ships familiarised with the region. But the extended amount of time being spent in SA and the variety of exercises with the SAN would seem to suggest that there may be more to it, such as an evaluation of the SA Navy's suitability to take part in NATO-led multinational operations. Logically, this could mean that such deployments might not be so far away into the future.

After all, NATO's Standing Naval Maritime Groups don't usually sail around the world on flag-showing exercises, with SNMG1 having to receive special permission from the NATO Council for this trip. Nevertheless, it's difficult to tell based on the limited info we have which of the two objectives was the primary motivation.

Either way, it's good experience for the SA Navy.

It may have something to do with Africom, but I doubt it. For the first few months at least, nothing about the US military posture in Africa is going to change dramatically (no more troops etc), as it's just an administrative reshuffling for now. Also, I think Africom's main interaction with the militaries of Africa will continue to be overwhelmingly centred on land forces with a small focus on air forces, as those are best suited to the kind of counter-terrorist, anti-insurgency and stabilisation work Africom is intending to achieve.

Source: avcom.co.za