The protection of marine resources *1
will be a major role for the South African Navy's new ships and the
arrival today of four new maritime helicopters will
enhance this capability, says Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota.
Speaking at the hand-over and commissioning of four new Super Lynx maritime
helicopters to the South African government today, Lekota said the craft
extended the command and situational awareness of the South African Navy's four
new frigates.
The helicopters were proof of the SANDF's efforts to
create "jointness" *2, he said.
The helicopters are part of the controversial arms
deal package *3 which recently came under the spotlight with a request by
the DA that Scopa revisit the arms deal.
With acknowledgements to Henri du Plessis and Cape Argus.
*1What spawned the requirement for
maritime patrol helicopters and blue water surface combatants (frigates) was the
Defence Review.
I'm not sure that marine resources were or should have been the subject of the
Defence Review.
Indeed it is utter nonsense that a developing country the size of South Africa
would spend R12 to R15 billion Rand (2008 Rands) in acquisition costs and many
hundreds of millions of Rands per year in operating costs to purchase the best,
most modern frigates in the world with surface-to-surface missiles and anti-air
missiles and maritime patrol helicopters with sonars and anti-submarine
torpedoes to protect marine resources.
It is not that marine resources are not worthy of protection. To the contrary.
But there are far better ways to do it.
For example, the Department of Environmental Affairs very recently purchased one
offshore and three inshore fisheries patrol vessels at a cost of some tens of
millions of Rands and not R3 billion to R4 billion each.
If the Department of Environmental Affairs needed further offshore capability
then more or all of these vessels should have been the larger offshore type,
which can also carry a helicopter.
A maritime patrol helicopter is a very special and very expensive machine (circa
R300 million each) whereas a normal civilian helicopter capable of ocean patrol
using an offshore fisheries patrol vessel as a platform costs say R40 million
each.
Lekota and his government are simply up to their old tricks of bullshit baffles
brains.
*2This is also trite nonsense.
In modern times, a frigate without a maritime patrol helicopter is like a komodo
dragon without eyes and nostrils.
The only reason the SA Navy doesn't fly its own helicopters is that it is so
small that it doesn't have the required capabilities and so "outsources" to the
SA Air Force.
There is precious little "jointness", in the true military sense of the term, in
the operation of maritime patrol helicopters off frigates.
Indeed, functionally the maritime patrol helicopters is considered to be an
integral part of the frigate's combat suite.
It is not an independent military capability that is deployed simultaneously to
create the force multiplier of jointness.
Again, a simple instance of bullshit baffles brains.
*3Lastly, the maritime patrol helicopters were indeed part
of the original R29 billion Strategic Defence Packages (SDPs) approved by
Cabinet in 1998, but were not part of the R30 billion Arms Deal contracts signed
in 1999.
They were dropped from the package to make allowance for the extra R872 million
cost of the frigate, including R699 million increased of the combat suite.
So it is not true that maritime patrol helicopters were part of the Arms Deal.
Their acquisition was very sneakily procured a few years after the Arms Deal.
That is the reason that they are being delivered only now, some two years after
the first frigate became operational.