The SA Navy is expecting its new squadron of patrol corvettes to police the African coast for at least 30 to 40 years.

Naval officers told journalists aboard the SAS Mendi this week the ships would, once operational from 2006, regularly carry out patrols of 28 days to six months at a time in support of national objectives such as peacekeeping and supporting the African Union.

The chief director of maritime strategy, Rear Admiral Philip Schoultz, said the ships would be significantly upgraded over that time.

Rear Admiral Johnny Kamerman said the ships had plenty of space to accommodate new equipment and weapons and was designed to easily allow the removal of outdated technology through easily accessible hatches.

The rest of the "old navy", its collection of minesweepers, patrol- and strike craft and the hydrographic survey vessel, SAS Protea, would be phased out in the years up to 2010 and be replaced by a new class of multi-purpose vessels that can carry out all these functions. Between six and 10 were expected to enter service from 2010.

Schoultz said the navy hoped to convince its Southern African Development Community (SADC) partners to adopt the same class of vessel. He hoped SADC would use 800-ton ships similar to those acquired recently by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism.

Around 2017/18, the Navy's current support ship, the Drakensberg, would make way for a helicopter landing ship that would allow the Navy to move up to a battalion of army troops up the African coast and let the Air Force base a squadron of helicopters off a troubled shore.

The core business of the SA Navy was fighting at sea *1, which meant it needed the ability to win at sea -- or at least be unchallenged in African waters.

This required the ability to operate throughout the southern oceans and southern African coastal waters, and the ability to operate jointly with other navies, air forces and armies.

Turning to progress with the corvettes, Kamerman said the SAS Amatola, the lead ship, had started sea acceptance trials to test its newly fitted weapons, electronics and combat system.

The tests, to determine that the ship works as designed -- and to iron out all its flaws before accepting her from her builders -- are expected to last until the second half of next year.

"This is quite realistic for a first of class," Kamerman told Sapa.

"It is a quite strenuous series of activities. I am confident -- but realistic *2 -- that the combat system will work."

He said between the manufacturer's testing and installation, the equipment went through an intermediate stage.

A complete system, down to the correct lengths of cables, was installed in a dockside building at Simon's Town, and subjected to numerous tests.

"We simulated everything as best as we could. We even had a radar on the roof of the building to track passing air traffic."

Kamerman said he was very proud of the combat system and the South African ingenuity that went into its design.

"Seventy-five percent of the combat suite is home-grown. *3

"It's the largest local content percentage of all the defence packages. The local content makes testing and integration so much easier. The foreign stuff must be done in a tight time frame and flying their experts here is expensive. The guys who built our radars *4 are just 40km away in Stellenbosch," Kamerman said of Reutech Radar Systems, one of the contractors.

Local content also speeded up repair and maintenance.

"It is local support in-country, not a local capacity created artificially or a bunch of foreigners flown in."

The ship's missile systems would be tested off the Overberg test range near Cape Agulhas later.

The ship's Exocet anti-ship missiles were proven, "off-the-shelf" designs and would be fired only to show "to ourselves and the navy that we have the capability". *5

Turning to the ships' Denel-made Umkhonto air defence missiles, which were still under development, Kamerman said their qualification would be "the ultimate test of all facets of the combat system".

Umkhonto was a complex system. Intercepting an attacking aircraft or missile required the seamless integration of a number of detection systems, tracking means, command posts and weapons and self-defence systems.

Tests on these would take place after June next year. The ship's guns -- 76mm, twin 35mm and 20mm -- were all well proven designs, but complicated by the combination of radar and electro-optical trackers required to track and engage targets.

The systems and trackers would be given a work-out on the navy's existing gunnery ranges near Simon's Town.

The true capacity of the ship to hunt and destroy submarines would not be known until the ship's AgustaWestland SuperLynx helicopters *6 arrive in 2006, and the arrival of the first new navy submarines next year.

Turning to the other three Valour-class corvettes, Kamerman said the installation of combat equipment and weapons were virtually complete on the Isandlwana and 80 percent on the Spioenkop.

The process would start for the SAS Mendi next month.

With acknowledgement to Leon Engelbrecht and Sapa.

*1 The core business of the SA Navy is not fighting Patagonian toothfisherpersons.

Our core business is fishing for corrupt persons.

*2 "realtistic" ? We have some hesitation here from the project officer.

According to my information, the Combat Suite will definitely not work as specified.

*3 This is simply untrue.

*4 Actually the radar tracker. The primary radar is the MRR Surveillance and Tracking Radar from - you could have guessed it - Thomson-CSF of France.

*5 The Exocet MM40 Block II has a range of 70 km. It is a tried and proven 1970-design missile. Even the Exocet MM40 Block III, currently in service with the French Navy has a range of 150 km.

Having an anti-ship missile with a range of 70 km when one's adversary has a missile with a range of 150 km (even 100 km) is about as useful as an out-of-date loan agreement.

*6 The primary reason for these shipborne maritime helicopters is not to destroy submarine. It is to provide the frigate with long range surveillance and targeting capability, without which it's about as useful as a faxed copy of an out-of-date loan agreement (especially when it expired four and a half years ago and was only faxed to you about 2 months ago).