The delivery of these three submarines by the German Submarine Consortium is part of an extensive program to modernise the South African Navy. The submarines are the latest version of the conventional 209 Class, which has been successfully exported by the German consortium for many years. 63 of these submarines are currently in deployment worldwide on four continents, making this the most successful diesel-electric driven submarine class in the world. In addition to the construction and delivery of submarines the Consortium's scope of delivery also includes training, logistical support and simulation technology.

The boat has a displacement of 1,450 tons, is 62 meters long and is made for cruising with a permanent crew of 30. Due to state-of-the art sensors and an integrated command and weapon control system the submarine is optimally suited for future reconnaissance and surveillance missions.

On March 16, 2007, the “Charlotte Maxeke” will leave Emden. During its long journey to its future home base the boat will be escorted by the fleet supply ship “SAS Drakensberg”. In the last week of April the submarine is expected to arrive at its home base port – the Navy base Simonstown in South Africa.

ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems AG, with its head office in Hamburg, Germany, is part of ThyssenKrupp Technologies AG within the ThyssenKrupp Group. Since 2005 it has been the umbrella organisation for eight European shipyards – Blohm + Voss, Blohm + Voss Repair, HDW-Gaarden, Hellenic Shipyards, Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft, Kockums, Nobiskrug, Nordseewerke – and various marine engineering companies. With its technological competence, extensive portfolio and continuous innovations the corporate group, employing around 8,800 staff, is one of the leading systems houses in European shipbuilding.

Source: ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems

But Helmoed-Römer Heitman, the Southern African correspondent for Jane's Defence Weekly and author of a similar study, South African Armed Forces (1990), said Engelbrecht had failed to take into account the significant upgrades planned for the naval weapons systems, the choices for which would become clear only as the new navy's role developed.

Rear Admiral Kevin Watson, the navy's project director for the acquisition of the vessels, confirmed that the bulk of the expenditure on the frigates (65 percent) had been on the ships, not their weapons systems. This, he admitted, was at odds with the international norm of a 70 percent ship/30 percent weapons split.

As a result, according to Engelbrecht, while the ships were top notch, there were significant weaknesses in the weapons, and the counter-measures the ships were able to deploy against enemy attack.

The frigates will be armed with eight Exocet missiles, 16 Umkhonto missiles, a single turreted Denel 76mm gun, Oerlikon 20mm cannons and a South African Denel/Reutech 35mm cannon.

According to Engelbrecht, the frigate's "current armament [was] suited only for limited, short-duration self-defence". Its "land-attack capability [was] limited to guns too light for the task" and it had "no land attack missiles". This inability to add muscle to incursions ashore is underlined by Engelbrecht's argument that "the [Valour] class deliberately lacks a land- attack cruise missile capability for political reasons: such weapons are seen by some as 'too aggressive' and out of keeping with the Valour-class's 'defencive posture'.

"However, like its peers, the SAN recognises the growing importance of fighting in the littoral battle-space and supporting land forces ... As a result, a missile land-attack capability is likely to be added as funds become available and sensitivities are assuaged."

Heitman said that budgeting, not political shyness, had delayed the development of the navy's land-attack capacity. Still, in Engelbrecht's estimation, the frigates' existing weapons were not up to scratch:

• The French anti-ship "Exocet missile was too slow to penetrate modern air defences and too short-ranged to allow the mothership adequate stand-off to evade detection and response … Some commentators have criticised the choice of the Exocet ... because of its lack of land-attack ability ... Others have hammered the system for its age (developed in 1967), its low relative speed and small warhead, compared with some more modern systems such as the Indo-Russian BrahMos," which was touted to the SAN at last year's Africa Aerospace and Defence show in Cape Town. Heitman suspected the SAN had bought one Exocet and leased the rest, but would upgrade to the latest, longer-range (173km) model, which had land-attack capabilities. The SAN was also interested in the supersonic 300km-range BrahMos cruise missile.
• The South African Denel Umkhonto-IR is a short-range (12km) anti-aircraft missile, which is still in its development stage, having been "tested only to a limited extent", while "several navies and air forces already have supersonic anti-ship missiles. How the Umkhonto will deal with these is not known." The frigates can have their capacity doubled to 32 Umkhontos, but will probably carry only eight missiles and so "can easily be swamped by saturation attack". Also, after a missile has been fired, empty launch canisters have to be removed from their silos, but: "As far as can be determined, this cannot be done by the Valour-class at sea, [so] reloading will have to be done alongside [in port] or require a replenishment vessel, as a depot ship, in calm seas". Heitman admitted the missiles might have difficulty intercepting supersonic assaults, but said the Finns' recent acquisition of the Umkhonto and Sweden's interest showed the missile was taken seriously. He added that no navy was able to reload its vertically launched anti-aircraft missiles at sea.
• The Italian OTOBreda 76mm cannons were acquired for the Warrior-class strike-craft in 1977 and four reconditioned ones were fitted to the frigates as "an interim cost-saving measure. Senior naval officers are well aware the gun is too small to effectively support forces ashore." Heitman agreed, but also echoed Engelbrecht in saying the SAN was looking to replace the 76 with a navalised 155mm gun, which could use Denel's world-class G5 and G6 ammunition. Such a long-rage gun, rather than missiles, would be able to bombard enemy air bases, gun emplacements and ports. But this, Heitman argued, would be relevant only once the SAN had acquired multi-role ships capable of landing troops to secure beachheads softened by such bombardment.

In addition, the frigates were not fitted with torpedoes (as they were capable of), and its anti-submarine warfare ability was very basic, Watson admitted. Heitman said "there's absolutely f* all [the frigates] can do to a submarine except ram it".

But the frigates would all go through "a massive upgrade" of their weapons, counter-measure and weapons-control systems in the coming years, he said.

Watson said the frigates' helicopters would initially be used in a surveillance role because they increased the ships' line of sight from 37km to 555km.

Source: Independent Online

An attack submarine with the ability to strike surface ships, kill enemy subs and gather covert intelligence, the Manthatisi arrived after an epic 49-day, 6 600-nautical mile voyage from the shipyard at Kiel on the Baltic Sea.

Armed with 14 torpedoes tipped with 200kg RDX warheads, Type 209 subs can remain unassisted at sea for more than a month. The 62m quiet-running, deep-diving subs are also able to detect enemy targets at long range.

South African flotilla had adopted the philosophy of 'there are only two kinds of vessels at sea'. Captain Malcolm Farre, the senior officer in charge of the submarine flotilla, said that although the Manthatisi was "fully functional for war", the crew would be combat-ready only in about 12 to 18 months.

Farre said the South African flotilla had adopted the philosophy of "there are only two kinds of vessels at sea - submarines and targets" as its own.

With a top submerged speed of 21.5 knots, the new subs are likely to have the most sport with fishing trawlers illegally plundering the country's marine sources.

Read more at: Independent Online

'Much of the hardware that we had been operating was becoming obsolete and expensive to maintain.' He states that part of the navy's current outlook has been to reduce its footprint with the view to reduce costs, to be better streamlined, and to integrate the new vessels that the navy has procured.

Wise points out that the new vessels have introduced new technologies in the navy and this, he says, provides young people with exciting new opportunities.

'But because of the training required for the advanced technology used in these vessels, it will take some time before they are fully integrated into the navy,' he explains.

The navy would also like to make itself more relevant in the regional context to help uplift our neighbours. According to Wise, the navy has a peace-support contingency in Burundi performing a constabu- lary role.

The navy has now procured four Corvettes from Germany built by the Blohm & Vos shipbuilders - two built in Kiel, the other two in Hamburg - and all four have already arrived in South Africa.

Wise enthuses that the SAS Amatola has completed its weapons fit-out and sea acceptance trials, and the commissioned vessel will have been handed over to the South African Navy by the contractors on February 16 this year, after which it will be commissioned into the navy.

He hopes that, by the end of the year, the remaining three Corvettes will too have completed their weapons installations and sea acceptance trials, and will be ready for delivery to the navy.

The navy is also to receive three Type 209 1400 submarines built by the German shipyard, HDW, the first one being built in Kiel and the remaining two being built in Thuyssen Emden.

'The first submarine is currently in Germany undergoing trials and the workup of its crew in preparation of its voyage to South Africa, arrival scheduled for April this year,' Wise says.

The arrival date had to be rescheduled owing to a technical mal- function that necessitated that the vessel return to Germany, upon which Wise could not comment.

But he does confirm that the SAS Drakensberg is on its way to Germany, from where it will escort the Type 209 submarine to South Africa.

Part of the Corvette procurement package, he reports, are the Super Lynx 300 Maritime helicopters, ordered from Westland in the UK.

He adds that this programme is well under way and on track, and the helicopters should arrive in South Africa in 2007 when they will be integrated with the Corvettes.

Interestingly, Wise mentions that the navy is too small to operate its own helicopters, this job being assigned to the Air Force.

The challenges that the navy is currently facing include fully integrating the new strategic-defence packages and achieving the required operational levels of these new vessels.

'We like to see ourselves as a benchmark for other small navies in the world,' he states.

'We also strive to maintain the highest calibre and quality of personnel in the engineering field as well as the combat environment, representative of the demographics of the country.' To achieve this, the navy runs, within the Defence Force, a military skills programme where it recruits young people into the navy for a two-year period, over which they are given military and life-skills training.

At the end of the two-year period the Navy offers employment contracts to those of the group they require and the rest enter civil society, remaining part of the reserve force.

'The skills that they acquire through our training help them to get jobs outside the navy,' Wise says.

Over the past 10 to 15 years, the navy has significantly reduced in size, without losing ground in efficiency owing to the advantages of obtaining new equipment.

Read more at: Engineering News

Higgs said none of the 37 crew or five Germans aboard was injured in the incident and that the SSK returned to Kiel, Germany under her own power. "At this stage we do not have the picture yet... it's a little bit too early," Higgs told DSD on Friday. "We were told that there was a technical malfunction and in the spirit of the people's navy we are keeping people in the picture," he said. Higgs expects the boat's mid-February voyage to South Africa slip slightly to the left as the boat is currently in the care of shipbuilders HDW.

The South African Navy's combat support ship (AOR) SAS Drakensberg (A301) sailed from Cape Town on January 17 to escort the boat home. The planned date of departure was February 13. "Following a stop- over in Rota in Spain between February 22 and 25 the long haul will begin with the estimated time of arrival in South Africa currently being 22 March," the Navy said in an earlier statement.

Chief of the Navy Vice Admiral Refiloe Mudimu believes submarines are a major force multiplier and a vital asset to the fleet. "We are looking forward to welcoming the submarine and her crew back home where they will work up in local waters before commencing the operational duties that we have planned for them". He said that the arrival of S101 would signal the revitalisation of the SA Navy's submarine service that has been lacking since the withdrawal of the now-decommissioned Daphne-class submarines - the last of which was taken out of service in November 2003.

The highly successful Type 209 submarine, currently in service in 13 navies worldwide, is ideally suited for operations off the South African coastline. "This voyage will not only test the SA Navy's ability to operate submarines for such long distance deployments, but also our ability to support them away from home base for extended periods". S101 was launched by struggle veteran Dr Ruth Mompati in Kiel, Germany, on the June 15, 2004. She was handed over to the SA Navy on September 20, 2005 and commissioned under the command of Commander Gary Kretschmer in Kiel on November 3, last year.

Source: Defence Systems Daily/SAAF Mailing List