Away from prying eyes, and with very little publicity, the SA National Defence Force has in the last year substantially increased its capabilities. According to state arms agency Armscor's latest annual report, the SA Army's air defence artillery has at last joined the missile age, with the delivery of a batch of British Starstreak *1 man-portable very short-range air defence systems (Manpads). And in August the Department of Defence's acquisition division told Parliament's defence committee the SAS Amatola had some months before blown a strike craft out of the water with an Exocet anti-ship missile.

The department said the missile, the first of the type fired by the SA Navy, was launched at the decommissioned hulk of the former strike craft SAS Shaka on April 22. Calling the event "historic", the military said the ship "was the smallest target ever engaged by an Exocet missile". The Exocets were acquired as part of "Project Sitron", which has already seen South Africa take delivery of four German-built Meko A200SAN patrol corvettes. According to reports, an initial 17 missiles were acquired *2, one for testing and the rest to parcel out among the ships. The US Federation of American Scientists (FAS) say Exocet's development started in 1967. The ship-launched variant entered service in 1975. Air-launched, land-based and submarine versions are also in service, but not in South Africa.  The missile is designed to attack large warships. An upgraded version came into service in the 1990s and introduced an improved digital active radar seeker and upgraded inertial navigation and control electronics. The Exocet has four clipped delta wings at mid-body and four raked clipped-tip moving delta control fins at the rear. The missile is 4.7m long, has a body diameter of 350mm and a wingspan of 1.1m. The missile weighs 670 kg and has a 165 kg HE shaped charge fragmentation warhead. Guidance in the mid-course phase is inertial, followed by an active radar terminal phase. There is also a radar altimeter to control the sea-skimming trajectory, at around 10m until the terminal phase when, in calm sea conditions, the missile can descend to 3m or so. The solid propellant motor gives Exocet a range of about 50km *3.

The Starstreak acquisition is part of the first phase of a larger ground based air defence systems (Gbads) programme. The first phase comprises one battery of man-portable SAMs and an Thales/Denel radar-based early warning and command system. It is not clear what a battery's worth of missiles amount to. The nomenclature "battery" is a relative term and could indicate six or eight systems and perhaps even more -- or less. A picture in the Armscor 2004/5 Annual report shows a launch pedestal with sights and three missile tubes, indicating a likelihood that between 18 and 24 missiles were purchased. The Starstreak 1.39m-long, 270mm diameter missile has a speed of Mach 3+ and was designed to counter threats from very high performance, low flying, aircraft and fast attack helicopters.  It is a threat to any aircraft within 300m to 5000m of the launcher. The missile is boosted to maximum velocity by a two-stage propulsion system at which point three darts, each with an impact fuze, are released and are guided on to the target by the operator, the FAS reports. In November 2002 Armscor announced the price of the three-year programme was R796 700 389.

A further phase of the Gbads programme could include a land-based version of the Umkhonto and more command-and-control systems. Denel was in 2004 hopeful either the Army or the Air Force would generate a requirement and fund the systems development. In its latest incarnation, a containerised vertical-launch version of Umkhonto was on display at Africa Aerospace & Defence in September 2004. The 12-tube system showed to the public rotated 90 degrees to allow reloading from the side. A naval Umkhonto, ordered by the SA and Finnish Navies is currently being operationalised at Denel's Overberg test range. To date no shipboard launches had been undertaken as the system is not yet certified that it can do it safely. Such tests are expected at year-end. "Over the water" tests have taken place and a target drone knocked from the sky during an successful intercept in June. According to a report released at the British DSEi defence show in September, the trials consisted of engagements with the Skua high speed target drone flying profiles that included low-level ingress, head-on aspect angles and evasive manoeuvres. Denel Aerospace Systems general manager Jan Wessels was quoted as saying: "Although we were more than satisfied with these trials involving telemetry-equipped missiles, it was deemed important to launch the Umkhonto missile with a standard warhead against Skua." According to Wessels, all objectives of the flight trials were met. The Umkhonto is to act as the Meko corvettes' primary defensive weapon against sea-skimming missiles and other aerial threats. It features a vertical launch capability from a concentric launch canister, which, together with the autonomous thrust-vector flight control of the missile, provides 360° cover. The system can launch eight or more missiles at different targets at the same time, the report claimed.

With acknowledgement to Defence THINK!