The South African Navy & Marine and Coastal Management: Category Today's Ships

S Africa warship arrives on first visit to China

2008-10-24T07:24:00+00:00

For the first time over the centuries' old history, a warship from the South African Republic has arrived on a friendly visit to China. According to the local press reports on Friday, Shanghai port met the South African vessel.

The visit is timed to the 10th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Last year, delegations of the two states' Defence Ministries discussed the possibility of such contacts.

Local media reported that Chinese ships have only twice in history reached the South African coast. First time - during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and second - in 2000. However, South African ships have never before visited China.

According to a report of the China Daily newspaper, the first warship from the African continent to visit China docked at Huangpu River port Thursday, ending 600 years of one-way visits.

The SAS Spioenkop with "all religions and races in the new South Africa on board, symbolizes a new transformation in South Africa," Rear Admiral Rusty Higgs said at a welcoming ceremony in Shanghai, according to the report.

"I can feel the excitement of the ship's company. They' ve gone through a long trip and some quite rough weather. I know they are happy to be here," he said. The visit is part of the yearlong celebrations to mark the 10th anniversary of China-South Africa diplomatic relations.

A Chinese frigate escorted the Spioenkop into the port. Wu Weihua, chief of staff of the Shanghai Naval Base of the East China Sea Fleet, headed a delegation of military and local officials, and diplomats, to welcome the ship, according to China Daily.

"You've travelled a long distance to bring the friendly greetings of the South African people. We really appreciate it," Wu said.

South African Ambassador to China Ndumiso Ntshinga was also there to welcome the ship.

"A plan to send a South African warship to China was discussed more than a year ago as a way to consolidate relations with China. We also realized that there was a gap in bilateral naval visits," Ntshinga said, the newspaper reported.

"In history, the Chinese twice made voyages to South Africa, one during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and the other in 2000, but we never reciprocated the visits," he said.

Source: SAAF Mailing List (17.10.2008)

Presidential Fleet Review

2008-08-26T19:14:00+00:00

The South African Navy will host the Presidential Fleet Review on 05 September 2008 in Simon’s Town. The aim of the Fleet Review is to introduce the new South African Navy to the Commander in Chief, President T.M. Mbeki and the people of South Africa.

During the Presidential Fleet Review, the South African Navy will demonstrate its broad range of capabilities to the South African nation to show case its readiness to protect our national interests and sovereign integrity.

A very odd way to buy a submarine

2008-08-12T05:13:00+00:00

The selection of the German Submarine Consortium (GSC) -- led by MAN Ferrostaal -- as a preferred bidder was such a farce that the possibility of corruption has become an almost irresistible inference.

Ferrostaal executive Horst Wereteki this week dismissed the R30million bribe claim as "absolute nonsense" and denied his company paid any bribes to win the contract.

He said Ferrostaal was considering legal action against the Sunday Times, which published the claim last weekend.

However, the German bid did not succeed because its submarine was rated the best compared with those of its rivals, Fincantieri of Italy, DCN of France or Kockums of Sweden.

In fact the military performance results of the evaluation team put GSC last and Fincantieri first.

GSC was pushed to the preferred supplier position by outrageous emphasis given to certain scores in the tender evaluation process.

The first was the weighting accorded to "integrated logistic support" (ILS), something that made up roughly 5% of the total cost of acquiring the submarines.

But this tiny factor was given a 67,5% weighting in the evaluation criteria of military performance, meaning a low quotation for ILS radically distorted the overall score.

Curiously, the ILS cost quoted by the Germans was so low the evaluators did not believe it and arbitrarily increased the quoted cost by 75%. Despite this, GSC still had the lowest ILS cost, which skewed the scoring and made GSC the leader in terms of the overall military performance assessment.

This anomaly has never been explained.

The other factor that helped GSC's bid was the weighting given to the German company's proposed stainless steel plant at Coega, which originally made up 93% of its "industrial participation" or offset offer.

Officials at the Department of Trade and Industry were so enamoured of this project that they assigned a multiplier-weighting of the assessed value of this project of 23, pushing it to 97% of the GSC offset offer, assessed to be worth a massive $239billion.

This amount dwarfed the more modest offset proposals by other bidders. The Coega plant never materialised.

Once again, this extraordinary evaluation process has not been properly investigated, despite the fact that an official who played a key role in the evaluation process was later fired for taking a R55 000 discount on one of the infamous cut-price vehicles offered by another German arms bidder.

Other suspicions fell on the late Joe Modise. The then defence minister "initialled" the contract with GSC shortly before leaving office and long before Cabinet's ministerial committee responsible for the deal had formally approved it.

The "initialling" has been dismissed as purely ceremonial and rumours that Modise received R10million for his efforts have never been substantiated.

Source: Mail & Guardian Online

Another cunning stunt?

2008-08-12T05:06:00+00:00

The SA Navy is going to dedicate its only extensive visit abroad this year to supporting the government's diplomatic relations in China and other eastern countries, at a cost of about R30m. In the past and due to the navy's limited budget, these types of visits usually focused on training and joint exercises with naval allies.

"Strategically seen, the saying is that you keep your friends close and your enemies closer," said military analyst Helmoed-Römer Heitman.

"China is a future colonial power in Africa and it makes sense for South Africa to seek favour now.

This will mean that South Africa will become a client rather than a colony of China in the future.

"This is really the only alternative for South Africa, seeing as it regards the USA as an enemy and Europe as an officious entity in Africa."

Inter-continental ties

Navy spokesperson Captain Lisa Hendricks said one of the navy's brand new frigates, the SAS Spioenkop, will support the government's diplomatic initiatives.

The ship will also visit Vietnam, India, Mauritius and Singapore.

The trip will last from October until December and will deplete most of the navy's budget for these kinds of deployments.

"The aim of the visits is to create inter-continental ties with the East and the Far East and to develop co-operation," Hendricks said.

Source: flyafrica.info

SAS Manthatisi experienced 'normal challenges', says Defence Department

2008-08-12T04:31:00+00:00

South Africa's Department of Defence (DoD) has rejected weekend media reports that its first submarine acquired under the 1999 arms deal had been "plagued by defects since its arrival", arguing that the vessel had simply experienced "normal first-of-class challenges".

The DoD conceded that it had experienced hull-valve challenges, but said that these had been fixed under the manufacturer warranty, and that additional engineering challenges for the entire class would be carried out, as the submarines were optimised for African conditions.

The vessel in question, the SAS Manthatisi, had performed "extremely creditably" since its work-up period, before setting sail from Norwegian waters to South Africa, the Department maintained.

The Sunday Times reported that the boat's snort-mast housing had imploded on its maiden journey to South Africa.

However, the DoD said in an emailed statement that this had happened during the work-up period, before setting sail for the country, and that its crew had averted serious risk through their "high level of training and competence".

It also refuted allegations that there had been irregularities during a battery charging process on the SAS Manthatisi's return to the water in May.

"This is routine procedure as submarine batteries are designed to be charged and discharged on a regular basis," the Defence Department asserted.

Meanwhile, the DoD conceded that the poaching of its scarce skills by the private sector was a challenge, saying that the chief of the Navy and of the Air Force had stated this publicly.

"It is further to be noted that the DoD has some of the best training in the world, and this, together with the discipline associated with the military ethos, means that our young men and women are highly desirable commodities to the private sector," it said.

The Department said that it asked government for the implementation of submarine allowances, which would "greatly assist" with the retention of these individuals.

"Despite this loss of scarce skills, the South African Navy is able to meet all capability requirements as specified in its strategic business plan, and to meet all ordered commitments," the DoD said.

Source: Engineering News

SA Navy denies claims of 'dud submarine'

2008-08-12T04:28:00+00:00

The SA Navy has dismissed claims that one of the three German submarines bought in the arms deal is a "dud", and says the SAS Manthatisi S101 is in Simon's Town naval drydock as part of "normal naval procedure".

The navy has also denied claims that submariners were "too afraid" to do the first safety dive on another of the submarines, SAS Queen Modjadji S103, saying it was standard procedure that the contractors' crew completed sea acceptance trials prior to the handover of the vessels to the purchaser.

SAS Queen Modjadji skipper, Commander Andrew Souma, said yesterday that the South African crew had since taken the vessel to its dive limit "hundreds of times".

"There has been no drama with this boat," Souma said.

The navy was reacting to claims in the Sunday Times that SAS Manthatisi S101 had been "plagued by defects" and had spent most of the past six months out of water.

The article said problems on the submarine included defects in the hull valve, an implosion of the air intake for diesel on its maiden voyage and an implosion on board when the submarine had been connected to an onshore power supply, contrary to correct procedure.

Rear Admiral Hanno Teuteberg, director of fleet force preparedness, said: "SAS Manthatisi is not a dud. We said we would run two and have one in reserve."

Teuteberg was asked to comment on the claims yesterday during a meeting in Simon's Town of the directors-general of the justice, crime prevention and security (JCPS) cluster and the SA Police Service Sea Borderline Control Unit. The navy is part of the JCPS.

Teutenberg said it was normal naval procedure to rotate submarines, which was "the way navies do things". While two were being deployed, the third was used for on-board training, which did away with the need to send crew to Germany to be trained. The vessel would not come back into operation until around this time next year.

"There has been talk of explosions. There was never any explosion on any South African submarine."

Reporters at the meeting were given a press statement issued by the Department of Defence on Friday that said the SAS Manthatisi had initially had hull valve problems that had been rectified under the manufacturer's warranty.

Naval staff said it was standard practice to push a new vessel to its limit under warranty so defects could be detected and rectified.

During such testing in Norwegian waters, the housing for the air- intake for the diesel had imploded and had been widely reported at the time. The statement said the German navy had congratulated the SA Navy at the time for its "prompt reaction and expertise displayed during the incident". There had not been any implosion during a battery change.

Teuteberg said South African submariners were highly trained and "some of the best in the world".

The statement said that, because South Africa had some of the best naval training in the world, it was losing highly qualified staff to the private sector and countries overseas. The navy had taken steps to address the loss of skilled staff. These included recruitment and submissions for more pay in the form of allowances.

Source: Cape Time, 06 Aug 2008

New submarine lands catch of the day

2008-06-10T19:51:00+00:00

The South African Navy has launched a stringent deterrence campaign against foreign vessels fishing illegally in the ecologically sensitive waters of Marion and Prince Edward islands, following its first successful submarine patrol there.

The SAS Charlotte Maxeke, a year-old submarine, made her debut patrol of the area around the two islands last month, becoming the first to succeed in gathering sufficient intelligence in these waters.

The region is renowned for its rough seas, spurred on by stormy weather.

With waves commonly reaching five metres, ships have previously been unsuccessful in patrolling the islands, which lie about 2 300km off the False Bay coast.

The waters surrounding Marion and Prince Edward islands, which were annexed by South Africa in 1947 and 1953 respectively, have been declared an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), making the marine resources available to South Africa only.

However, the SA Navy, mandated to protect the area, has aimed at investigating "the possible involvement by a foreign company or country in pillaging (the) marine resources" there, a SA Navy statement said.

Commander Roland Shortt, the SAS Charlotte Maxeke's captain, said the operation had kicked off on May 22, when the submarine had left for Marion Island with a crew of 32.

They had made a "discreet transit" to and from the Simon's Town Naval Base, making them undetected by any foreign vessels they were investigating.

He said they "gained intelligence", or evidence of illegal fishing, on a number of vessels, which would then be referred to Marine and Coastal Management and the police.

This information had been gathered mainly using equipment such as still cameras and an optronic mast, an advanced type of periscope that was able to use heat-detecting infra-red technology to catch illegal fishers in the act, day or night.

They were not, however, in the position to divulge the information they obtained.

Rear Admiral (Junior Grade) Hanno Teuteberg, the director of Fleet Force Preparation, said the patrol had not been successful before because they did not have the required equipment, including the submarines.

This had become possible with the arrival of the final deliveries of new frigates and submarines, which are included in the Strategic Defence Package. They now had three submarines, two of which would be available for patrols, while the other underwent maintenance.

In light of the SAS Charlotte Maxeke's triumph, Teuteberg said they would carry out many similar operations.

Source: Independent Online

SA Navy Festival 2008 Pictures

2008-03-16T19:14:00+00:00

Louis Vosloo has taken some pictures of the SA Navy Festival 2008.

German Navy Hamburg, currently on visit due to Exercise Good Hope III - Image: Louis Vosloo

German Navy Berlin, currently on visit due to Exercise Good Hope III - Image: Louis Vosloo

New submarine S102 in dry dock beside the decomissioned S98 - Image: Louis Vosloo

War games 'strengthening SA ties with Germany

2008-03-11T05:27:00+00:00

"AIRCRAFT closing, starboard side," Lieutenant Ewald Engelbrecht shouted while standing in the doorway to the bridge of the SAS Amatola yesterday. He pointed at a Tornado fighter aircraft from the German Luftwaffe as it roared past the South African warship, marking its position for the officer who gives steering orders.

As a bridge watch keeper on the Amatola, Engelbrecht is primarily responsible for keeping an eye on a radar screen and making sure the SA Navy frigate stays clear of other ships in the area.

"I keep the anti-collision plot, but at the same time we're all responsible for our own lives," he said.

Spotting fighter jets closing in on the Amatola and two German warships wasn't a life-or-death matter yesterday. The incoming South African and German air force jets were taking part in combined naval exercises.

Officials invited journalists aboard the Amatola, one of the ships participating in the month-long Exercise Good Hope III yesterday, to watch.

Ships, fighter aircraft and helicopters from Germany's armed forces arrived in Simon's Town last month and are taking part in manoeuvres with South African naval and air personnel.

The combined forces have two weeks of missile firings, air defence exercises and war games ahead of them before leaders from the two navies sit down to discuss their forces' performance.

On board the Amatola yesterday morning, officials said the exercises were developed to test each country's combat readiness and foster co-operation. Dieter Haller, the German ambassador to South Africa, said that there was a great need for militaries to work alongside each other as part of international forces.

"The world is not one of peace, unfortunately. There is always a need for international peacekeeping missions. I think what we are seeing in these days is a very important step for South Africa and Germany." Haller also said the combined military exercises were symbolic of the larger partnership between the German and South African governments and economies. Deputy Defence Minister Mluleki George said the exercises would ensure the armed forces were able to fulfil their constitutional mandate to protect the country, as well as provide humanitarian aid.

Source: Cape Times (via saairforce.co.za)

More pictures of Good Hope III

2008-03-09T08:47:00+00:00

Pictures of Exercise Good Hope III from aboard SAS Amatola are available thanks to Dean Wingrin:

SAS Amatola leaving Table Bay Harbour - Image: Dean Wingrin

F220 Hamburg - Image: Dean Wingrin