The South African Navy & Marine and Coastal Management

Report on SANDF losses doubted

admin — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:56:00 +0000

A restricted report which threatens to show up former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota in a bad light has been rubbished by his former department as having been "doctored".

Nearly two years after Lekota vehemently denied the reported multimillion-rand theft and loss of defence force equipment, vehicles and supplies from its bases in Burundi, a restricted SA National Defence Force legal services staff paper has described the non-prosecution of those responsible as "stupefying".

But the defence department on Wednesday insisted that the report obtained by The Star - which was originally commissioned by the chief of the SANDF's legal services - had been altered by unknown people with access to restricted documentation.

As a result of the "doctoring" of the report, the department's spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi refused to clarify or comment on the report's criticism of "the non-prosecution of any (Burundi-based battalion) commanders for negligent losses of state equipment and property, and failure to account for the theft from SANDF stores in Burundi".

The document's author, Captain DK Gillespie, said last night: "I did not write that."

SA, Russia in R1bn cold war

admin — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:50:00 +0000

The secret is out: Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota cancelled the purchase of a military spy satellite from Russia, putting relations between the two countries under strain and potentially creating a R1-billion liability for South Africa.

Protracted shuttle diplomacy has failed to resolve the dispute, which Russia is said to be taking to the international arbitration court in The Hague.

In retaliation the Russian military has also delayed launching a separate homegrown satellite that is the flagship of South Africa's incipient civilian space programme.

The top-secret and costly attempt to enable the SANDF to snoop from space was driven by defence intelligence chief Moreti "Mojo" Motau.

It is unclear why Lekota cancelled the contract. NPO Mashinostroyenia, the Russian state company from which Motau ordered the spy satellite, referred all queries to Lekota's ministry.

Lekota would not answer Mail & Guardian questions, including whether Motau had the authority to contract in the first place -- and if not, whether disciplinary action had been taken. His spokesperson said he did not want to prejudice "ongoing negotiations" with the Russians.

SA unmanned air-vehicle programme set for take-off

admin — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:06:00 +0000

South Africa's Denel Dynamics' Bateleur medium-altitude long-endurance(MALE) Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) project looks set to be developed as a joint programme with Brazil. And, in a purely national programme, the company is also developing a new version of its Seeker tactical UAV. Negotiations with Brazil regarding the Bateleur project are already under way, confirms Brazilian Air Force Colonel Nelson Silveira. Colonel Silveira is the Brazilian project officer on the joint South African/Brazilian A-Darter programme - the A-Darter is a fifth generation infrared homing air-to-air missile. He reveals that a memorandum of understanding on cooperation on UAVs was signed between the two countries a year ago.

An initial South African proposal regarding the Bateleur was made to the commander of the Brazilian Air Force in mid-May. The Brazilians are expecting to receive a full proposal, including timeframes and cost estimates, from South Africa in the near future.

This joint UAV project would be modelled on the current joint A-Darter project, which is proving highly successful. Should the project go ahead, as both sides hope, the Bateleur would be acquired by the Brazilian Air Force. It is not yet clear what arm or arms of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) would buy the Bateleur. The South African Air Force has a plan to acquire MALE UAVs, perhaps starting in 2010. Furthermore, the South African Navy is known to be interested in the Bateleur.

The Bateleur concept was developed by Denel four years ago, with a mock-up first displayed in public at the Africa Aerospace and Defence exhibition in Pretoria in 2004.

Then, the company hoped that the UAV would make its first flight in the first half of 2006, but development stalled as a result of a lack of funding. Despite its promise, there was and is simply not the budget to develop the Bateleur as an exclusively South African programme. Finding a foreign partner willing to invest in the development of the aircraft became essential to get the project going again. Hence the importance of the talks with Brazil.

The original conception for the Bateleur included use of existing and proven systems and subsystems from Denel's Seeker II tactical UAV and Skua high-speed target drone, as well as commercial off-the-shelf equipment, in order to keep development costs down. For example, the idea was that the Bateleur would use the same ground control station as the Seeker II. The original specification of the Bateleur included an endurance of 18 to 24 hours, an operational radius of up to 750 km, a maximum altitude above 8 000 m, a maximum cruise speed of 250 km/h, a minimum loiter speed of 120 km/h and a payload mass of 1 t. The UAV would be equipped with a satellite communications system, and would take-off and land on paved runways like a conventional aircraft, but automatically, and would be equipped with a retractable undercarriage. It was conceived to be of modular, composite, construction, and it would have (in its initial version) a wingspan of 15 m. The idea was that a Bateleur could be fitted into a 6 m ISO container.

It is not known how many of these original ideas are, or will remain, valid - for example, a retractable undercarriage adds weight, expense, and complexity, although it should reduce the UAV's radar signature; but is that gain worth the cost? Currently, the world's biggest operational users of UAVs - the Americans, British, and Israelis - are perfectly happy with MALE UAVs with fixed undercarriages; retractable undercarriages are generally confined to high altitude, and to stealth, UAV projects.

Regarding the Seeker tactical UAV, the new model is designated the Seeker 400, and its capabilities will be a considerable advance over those of the current production model, the Seeker II. A foreign country has already expressed its interest in acquiring a the Seeker 400.

To minimise the development risk of the programme, the Seeker 400 uses the same avionics and ground station as the Seeker II. However, while the Seeker II has an endurance of ten hours, the Seeker 400 increases this by six hours to a total of 16 hours. The new model of the Seeker also has the ability to carry more than one payload at the same time, while the Seeker II can carry only one at a time. The Seeker 400 will also be equipped with an aviation-certified engine, with reduced noise levels, that would be manufactured in South Africa. In fact, a key concept underlying the entire programme is that nearly all the components and systems be built in South Africa.

There is currently no indication that the Seeker 400 will be acquired by the SANDF, but like its predecessor, the Seeker II, it will probably be produced for export markets. The Seeker II has proved most successful in the service of overseas clients.

Source: Engineering News

Presidential Fleet Review

admin — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:14:00 +0000

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.

Two more vessels seized by pirates off Somali coast

admin — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:16:00 +0000

Two vessels, an Iranian bulk carrier and a Japanese-operated tanker, have been seized by pirates off the coast of Somalia, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said on Thursday.

"Both ships were attacked and hijacked this morning [Thursday]," said Noel Chong, head of the IMB piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur.

The Japanese tanker had 19 crew on board, but no Japanese nationals, Chong said.

Thursday's seizures came after a Malaysian oil tanker, with 39 crew on board and laden with palm oil, was hijacked on Wednesday in the Gulf of Aden.

Piracy is rife off Somalia, which has been mired in anarchy since warlords overthrew a dictator in 1991.

Last week, pirates from Somalia hijacked two ships -- a Thai cargo ship, the MV Thor Star, and a Nigerian tug boat, the MT Yenegoa Ocean.

Somali pirates are still holding a Japanese-managed bulk vessel, the MV Stella Maris, which was hijacked on July 20.

Source: Mail & Guardian Online

A very odd way to buy a submarine

admin — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 05:13:00 +0000

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?

admin — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 05:06:00 +0000

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

admin — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 04:31:00 +0000

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'

admin — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 04:28:00 +0000

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

Navy top brass don't have to go to sea

admin — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:56:00 +0000

Serving time at sea is no longer a requirement for a top post in the South African Navy.

Both the Chief of the Navy, Vice-Admiral Johannes Mudimu, and the navy's next Master at Arms, Warrant Officer Pragasen Moodley, who will take up position early next year, were appointed without serving time at sea.

The Master at Arms is the disciplinary co-ordinator for all uniformed staff.

A retired senior navy officer, who asked not to be named, said the fact that the two key members holding these vital positions in the navy hadn't served time at sea was a "complete joke".

He said there was no way anyone could run the navy without serving time aboard ship.

"These guys have no credibility. How can they expect to lead the country's mariners if they have no idea what it's like working at sea? They can't stand in front of a group of senior officers and tell them what to do.

"Maybe that's why the navy is in such a mess."

In response, Defence Department spokesman Siphiwe Dlamini said the fundamental requirement for those appointed into leadership positions in the armed forces was to demonstrate sound leadership.

Characteristics such as visionary thinking and the ability to inspire and motivate members at every level in the organisation were what was most critical.

"In keeping with military norms, we require that our leaders are role models - persons who epitomise the code of conduct and value system of the organisation in which they serve, " said Dlamini.

"Thus they need, first and foremost, to be persons of principle who are able to lead men and women into difficult and dangerous circumstances in a manner that is befitting of our Constitution and of the people whom we serve."

Dlamini said while being required to operate strategically, people placed in senior positions also needed to have a good understanding of the core business of the organisation - which was, in the case of the navy, fighting at sea.

He said both Mudimu and Moodley would need to have "very good insight" into this.

"We are proud to affirm that the track records of the incumbents of both posts bear testament to the fact that they have demonstrated, and continue to demonstrate, leadership of the highest order."

Vice-Admiral Mudimu served witin the ranks of uMkonto we Sizwe from 1975 until the integration of the forces in 1994, serving in broad range of posts across Africa.

Prior to his appointment as the Chief of the Navy in March 2005, Mudimu served in the South African National Defence Force "across the full spectrum of organisational processes, including the inspector general, fleet staff and naval staff process".

"It is such diverse experience, gained in such broad range of contexts, which truly prepares military professionals for positions of leadership," said Dlamini.

"Both Vice-Admiral Mudimu and Warrant Officer Moodley have fully immersed themselves in the sea-going environment, and as such may be held to understand all aspects thereof as may be required of them to execute their leadership positions in the way in which military organisations the world over might demand."

Mudimu has been to sea since being appointe.

Source: Cape Argus, 7 June