Response
 

Cape Town - The media were given a sneak preview on Friday of the capabilities of the navy's new Corvettes at a R500-million test-bed site for the warships in Simonstown.

The first platform for the SAS Amatola is expected to arrive in South Africa around November 2003, when the ship will be fitted with the necessary combat suites.

These suites are similar to the one the media were invited to inspect on Friday.

"A lot of the equipment and technology is South African, with some of the equipment an evolution of older generations ... meaning that the level of risk is not as high as if it was a first time development," African Defence Systems general manager Doug Law-Brown told journalists.

He said the combat suite was an exact replica, with "even the same cabling under the floors", as the one that would be found in the Corvettes.

The integrated test-bed allowed the navy to iron out any problems that might be found before the Corvettes arrived.

The SAS Amatola has been built and is on its way to South Africa to be fitted.

Earlier, officials gave a brief rundown on some of the specifications of the new ships. According to commander Andrew Cothill they set world standards in at least three aspects:

- the new Corvette was the first major warship that had its hull laser-welded to help prevent plate buckling during fitting;

- it was the world's first major warship with water jet propulsion;

- and it was also the first warship to have a horizontal main engine exhaust system.

"The ship is 121 metres long - two metres longer than the SAS Drakensberg - weighs 3590 tons, has a top speed of 29 to 30 knots and a range of 7700 nautical miles," said Cothill.

The combat suit consisted of six consoles, namely a bridge display, radar control, air control, tactical picture, anti-air warfare, and surface control.

"Its electronic warfare system consists of, among other things, a radar interception system, active jamming, a laser warning system and a rocket decoy system," he said.

It was armed with a 76 millimetre medium gun, a dual purpose gun capable of firing 550 rounds each per minute from two barrels, eight Exocet surface-to-surface missiles with a range of about 70 kilometres and 16 Umkhonto surface to air infra-red missiles.

The director of naval acquisitions Rear Admiral Leon Reeder said that contrary to media reports that the systems onboard the Corvettes were inferior, the vessels used "leading edge technology". (seems to contradict Law-Brown)

Rear Admiral Eric Green said he was confident that everything was on schedule with regards to the integration of systems for 2005. (about a year late - maybe two years)

"Where we could face a challenge will be the installation of the ships, all four of which would be coming in the space of seven-and-a-half months, instead of one every six months as was originally planned," he said.

Some delays have occurred hampering the delivery of the ships, particularly when cabling used for the electrical components of the ships was found to be of an inferior quality and had to be refitted.

With acknowledgement to Sapa.