The South African Navy & Marine and Coastal Management: Tag Brazil

SA Hopes Brazil Will Join Another Missile Project

admin — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:16:00 +0000

A Brazilian report has stated that South Africa's State-owned defence industrial group Denel is proposing that the Brazilian Navy cooperate with it in the development of the radar-guided version of Denel Dynamics' Umkhonto naval surface-to-air missile (SAM), designated Umkhonto-R. If so, this would parallel the current cooperation between Denel Dynamics and the Brazilian Air Force in the development of the A-Darter air-to-air missile. It is known that Denel is seeking to widen its cooperation with Brazil, with Unmanned Air Vehicles likely to be the next area of partnership. The Brazilian and South African Navies will start high-level staff talks late next month (November) and it is believed that this would provide the ideal opportunity for the South African Navy to lobby the Brazilians to join the Umkhonto-R programme. The original, infrared-homing, version of the Umkhonto, designated Umkhonto-IR, is now in service with the South African and Finnish Navies and is being seriously considered by the Swedish Navy. Radar homing would give the missile greater range. While the slant (as distinct from vertical, or horizontal) range of the Umkhonto-IR is believed to be 14 km, that for the Umkhonto-R would, reportedly, be 20 km. (The Denel Dynamics public brochure for the Umkhonto-IR states "Range: 12 000 m", and gives a ceiling of 8 000 m.)

The South African Department of Defence is, it seems, providing funding for the Umkhonto-R project, but this is not likely to be enough to allow a purely national development of the programme within a reasonable time. (If a weapon system takes too long to develop, it becomes obsolete before it even enters service.) Hence Denel's, and South Africa's, reported desire for a partner.

The engagement sequence for the Umkhonto-IR is as follows: the warship detects a target on its acquisition radar and launches the missile against it; the SAM uses its on-board inertial navigation subsystem to fly itself to a "lock-on point" - the location at which its IR seeker can acquire the target and lock on to it - and then guide itself to interception. However, for the Umkhonto-R, it is reported that, after target detection and missile launch, the SAM would be steered towards the target by commands from the warship, activating its radar seeker when within range, locking on to, and then intercepting, the target.

Unlike the South African navy, the Brazilian Navy already operates radar-guided SAMs, namely the Italian Aspide, with a published range of greater than 15 km. Although the Brazilians rate this as a very good missile, they are, however, merely users of it - they have no mastery of radar-homing technology. Cooperation with South Africa in the Umkhonto-R programme would provide an opportunity for the Brazilians to gain this expertise.

However, there is a potential problem. The Umkhonto (both -IR and -R versions) is designed to use vertical launch systems (VLS) and not traditional trainable launchers.

In a VLS each missile is accomodated in its own silo, and this arrangement has many advantages over traditonal systems, with the result that VLS is being adopted nearly universally for new-build warships. But almost all of a VLS is accomodated below deck, not above deck as with traditional launchers. This requires that the ship have significant internal volume to accomodate the VLS. And Brazil's existing frigates and corvettes do not have the necessary internal volume to host VLS, meaning they cannot carry the Umkhonto. On the other hand, the Umkhonto-R could be fitted to Brazil's bigger ships - the aircraft carrier and four or five amphibious ships - which have plenty of internal volume available. So this is not an automatic deal-wrecker.

The Brazilian Navy has its own research and development agency, the Naval Research Institute (IPqM are its initials in Portuguese). The IPqM is based in Rio de Janeiro and is subordinated to the Navy Science, Technology, and Innovation Secretariat. The Institute has successfully developed weapons and electronic systems that are now in service with the Brazilian Navy, including electronic support measures (ESM), a tactical control system for warships, a monitoring and conmtrol system for ships' engines, a chaff launching system, and sea mines. Projects it is currently working on include an electronic countermeasures (ECM) system, radar absorbing materials, ceramic armour, and an inertial navigation system. The IPqM has close ties with Brazilian industry and would presumably be the lead Brazilian institution in a joint Umkhonto-R programme.

Source: Engineering News

Naval Fleets Of SA, Brazil And India Take A Breather In The V&A Waterfront

admin — Tue, 13 May 2008 04:28:00 +0000

Capetonions can board the visiting Indian and Brazilian warships, as well as the South African ships, when they berth in the V&A Waterfront from 09 – 11 May 2008. These ships are in South Africa as part of the inaugural tri-nation IBSA (Indian, Brazil and South Africa) government initiative.

The fleet has just concluded a very successful series of exercises in Western Cape waters. Some of the exercises included surface gunnery shoots, anti-air warfare exercises, replenishment-at-sea (RAS) approaches, Officer-of-the-Watch maneouvering and boarding exercises (simulations of how to board vessels suspected of illegal activities). Although the recent spate of bad weather made the sea conditions less than pleasant, the professionalism of the sailors of all the ships was more than up to the task. The sailors are looking forward to some time off this weekend to explore Cape Town.

All the ships will be open to the public from 0900 – 1400 on Saturday and Sunday. The people of Cape Town are invited to go on board the vessels and to interact with the sailors of the three countries. There are no costs involved, but members of the public are kindly asked to refrain from carrying dangerous weapons when they visit the ships.

The Indian Navy’s INS MUMBAI (a destroyer) is a very large, impressive vessel and is nearly 160m long. Although the INS KARMUK (a corvette) is smaller, it is still armed to the teeth with 16 surface missiles and an armoury of other offensive weapons. Both the Brazilian ships, BNS INDEPENDENCIA and BNS DEFENSORA, are impressive ships that are about the same size as our own VALOUR CLASS frigates, SAS AMATOLA and SAS ISANDLWANA.

The fleet will be departing the V&A Waterfront on Monday 12 May and will then proceed to sea for a further series of more advanced exercises. During this phase the fleet will split in two, with an Indian, Brazilian and South Africa ship in each force. Then the two forces – red vs blue – will conduct a series of Battle Exercises during which they will simulate a war situation where the forces try to “kill” each other. This Battle Exercise will be a culmination of all the exercises that occurred this week and is a very good means of preparing sailors for war scenarios in peace time.

Source: SA Navy

AS ISANDLWANA has departed from Valparaiso, Chile after taking part in participation in Exercise ATLASUR VI

admin — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:33:00 +0000

Article and photo’s by Esn T.J. Mabina and WO1 M. Gounden

South African Naval frigate, SAS ISANDLWANA has departed from Valparaiso en route home. She was in Chile for a short while as part of the Chilean Exponaval 2006 following her participation in Exercise ATLASUR VI and visits to Brazil and Argentina. Also attending were the Chief of the South African Navy, V Adm Mudimu and the Director Maritime Warfare, R Adm (JG) Higgs. The Exponaval was attended by some 26 Navies from around the globe, with visiting ships from Colombia, Mexico, Argentina and South Africa.

The South African Navy’s attendance at the Expo stemmed from President Thabo Mbeki’s visit to Chile earlier in 2006, during which Trade Agreements between the two countries were discussed. The South African Minister of Defence, Minister Lekota, later signed a Memorandum of Understanding in order to forge, amongst others, maritime trade links between South Africa and Chile. The South African Navy, and SAS ISANDLWANA was identified as the platform to provide the impetus for these trade links.

SAS Isandlwana in Valparaiso - Image: SA Navy