Just one of the depressing aspects of the arms procurement controversy, which has been gnawing away at the national psyche for almost five years now, is the bewildering rate at which the costs seem to be escalating.

What started out as a R29 billion package climbed with indecent haste to R42bn and then R69bn. Some of the estimates recently bandied about suggest that in 10 years' time, the real costs could be near the R140bn mark.

Part of the problem is that so much is at stake that supporters and critics of this highly complex deal often muddy the waters, making it difficult for agnostics and curious taxpayers to make well-informed, value-for-money judgments.

Whether individual taxpayers like it or not, the military hardware South Africa ordered has started arriving on our shores and neither legal action nor mass action is likely to stop it.

With this in mind, I proceeded to Simon's Town this past week looking for positives. I was anxious to find what could help justify the siphoning off of a sizeable chunk of my tax contribution in years to come on things like stealthy, hi-tech battleships in the form of the SAS Amatola.

One of the more heartening aspects of the overall experience was the attitude of the corvette programme's project leader, Rear-Admiral Johnny Kamerman.

He used the following question as his point of departure in discussing the warship acquisition programme: "Why are we spending R6bn of the taxpayers' heard-earned money when there are other pressing social imperatives?"

And there were impressive features aplenty in the first of a quartet of corvette acquisitions, dubbed by Amatola captain Guy Jamieson as "the most modern warship in the world".

Given the wholesale slashing of the navy's budget in recent years and the exodus of techies from our shores, it is noteworthy that three-quarters of these warships' combat systems are being built by 20 South African hi-tech companies. Another 10 local companies are making a contribution to the German-built ships' "platforms", comprising the hulls and machinery.

As one might expect given their price tags, these new-generation corvettes are bristling with dazzling features and neat gizmos. Especially impressive is the staggeringly powerful propulsion system consisting of two ultra-quiet diesel engines, assisted by a gas turbine water jet, that spits out three swimming pools of water every second as the 3 600 ton vessel barrels along at 30 knots.  

Even more impressive is the radically small turning circle of a ship the length of a rugby field, even at high speed. The real show-stopper is the crash-stop manoeuvre, which brings the vessel to a spectacular halt in a matter of seconds and a 25-metre wall of water envelopes the stern.

The stealth design of the ship makes for very low radar, infra-red, acoustic and magnetic signatures, hampering enemy detection systems. By heating and cooling panels on the outer envelope of the ship, the corvette can even create the impression for outside surveillance systems that it is a different class and size of ship.

The vessels, all built to South African specifications, even have features to please the environmentally conscious. During lengthy excursions lasting several months, waste is not tossed overboard but is compressed and stored in especially refrigerated containers until docking at the next port.

And for those seized with gender issues, the vessels' sleeping/toilet/ ablution facilities have "gender flexibility designed in from the start". At the moment, about 20% of Amatola's crew are of the female persuasion.

For all the new corvettes' impressive features, the specifications document detailing some of these carries a number of tell-tale signs that the navy has, for now, had to settle for a significantly pared down, economy-class version.

Terms such as "fitted for, but not with" and "designed with built-in growth potential to easily upgrade its capabilities" are clear evidence that budget constraints have bitten deep.

Cost-cutting compromises are particularly evident when it comes to a reduction in the number of anti-ship and anti-air missiles, electronic warfare counter-measures, tracking radars and sonars, and an absence of torpedoes and torpedo counter-measures.

Indeed, Jane's Defence Weekly correspondent and defence analyst Helmud Romer Heitman told me after our joy ride in False Bay that the cost of the corvette programme would have been three to four times higher had all the bells and whistles been incorporated into the package.

So, as the saying goes, watch this space.

Johnson is a former Cape Times political commentator.

With acknowledgements to AnthonyJohnson and the Cape Times.