Publication: Cape Times
Issued:
Date: 2008-09-04
Reporter: Sapa
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Navy to Host
Presidential Fleet Review
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The South African Navy will host a Presidential Fleet Review
in Simon's Town on Friday.
The aim of the review is to introduce the new navy fleet
to the Commander in Chief President Thabo Mbeki and the people of South Africa
*1.
The event can be seen as a culmination of more than a decade of
"extremely hard work" by members to ensure the new vessels are operational and
the personnel are competent and professional to crew them, Defence Minister
Mosiuoa Lekota told a media briefing.
Mbeki would be on board the navy's survey vessel SAS Protea, which would sail
past the formation and receive the naval ceremonial marks of respect from each
ship in the formation.
"This is a very colourful ceremonial event that is conducted with precision
navigation and timing, and shows off the navy, not only to the head of state,
but also to the people of the country," he said.
Most of the navy's ships and submarines would be fully
crewed and in the formation. *2
Mbeki would also address navy personnel during a presidential parade on
land after the sail past.
Lekota said the navy had, over the past few years, transformed from the
relatively ageing and obsolete hardware and systems, to a navy with a fleet of
some of the most technologically advanced ships and
submarines in the Southern hemisphere.
"The new technologies inherent to the MEKO Class Frigates and Type 209
MOD SA Submarines have dramatically altered not only the
way in which we operate our fleet, but also the way in which we support,
maintain and sustain our inventory *3 to ensure that ordered commitments
are met to specification."
Whereas the past two decades had seen the SA navy use its ships and submarines
primarily to establish a presence at sea and to undertake limited sea control,
it now entered a new era with significantly different
challenges *4 requiring it to operate within a new dimension of maritime warfare
*5, he said. - Sapa
With acknowledgements to Sapa and Cape Times.
*1 The aim of the review is to
introduce the new navy fleet to The People and to the Commander-in-Chief
President Thabo Mbeki so that we can see what we paid for and he can see what he
was paid for.
*2 Except S101 which the SA Navy crew very nearly sunk due
to an operating procedure error on its maiden voyage from Germany to South
Africa and which the SA Navy maintenance personal "blew up" due to a maintenance
procedure error a couple of months ago.
It will be out of action for the best part of a year and cost tens of millions
of Rands to repair.
A main diesel engine of one of the frigates was also "blown up" a couple of
years ago due to a SA Navy crew operating procedure error (actually negligence)
putting it out of action for months and costing many millions of Rands to
repair.
*3 Dramatic ways of operating and maintaining the fleet
indeed :
- nearly sinking a R4 billion submarine on its maiden voyage purely due to
operating procedure error caused by inadequate training and inappropriate
crew selection.
- putting a R4 billion submarine out of action for a year less than two
years after taking delivery out it, this being caused purely by maintenance
error caused by inadequate training.
*4 All dreamed up by Lekota and his advisors and
sympathisers since the 1995 to 1997 Defence Review and 1998 Force Design.
*5 Well, hopefully this "new dimension of maritime warfare"
is not the war of poaching, smuggling and pollution.
Because this is not the SA Navy's task.
Because the SA Navy's self-declared task is to fight (and presumably win) at
sea.
But while Lekota is about it, he can (and should) explain precisely to all of us
taxpayers who paid R30 billion in 2008 Rands for our new MEKO Class Frigates,
Type 209 MOD SA Submarines and SuperLynx 100 maritime helicopters out of the
Arms Deal, plus another couple of billion Rand per year in operating and
supporting them, plus are about to spend another R5 to R10 billion in new
offshore patrol vessels and assault ships, what does "a new dimension of
maritime warfare" means.
If he says this is asymmetric warfare in the littoral zone he's taking merde.
This ain't new. It's been the reality in naval warfare since, inter alia, the
Falkland Islands War in 1982, the minor naval skirmishes in the two Iraq Wars
and since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1989.
Very much of the hitherto secret *6 operations of the SA Navy's operations off
Angola and Mozambique between 1975 and 1988 were also in the littoral zone.
*6 See Kyknet on Sunday nights at 20:30 CAT and Rear Admiral
Chris Bennett's recent (2006) book on the SA Navy (especially the episode on
Kyknet two Sundays ago).