Angola’s President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who visited Germany last week,
was expected to have signed contracts for up to four naval warships for the oil
rich African country.
A Luanda news report suggested the president would confirm orders for three
patrol boats but other independent reports say that Angola will also be ordering
a corvette of the Meko type A200 class. The three patrol boats would be
coastguard type vessels suitable for inshore patrolling along Angola’s long
coastline, either Guardian or Sentinel OPVs.
An amount of €750 million has been mentioned for the three patrol boats.
The Guardian, which is designed and built by TKMS is a 1,850-tonne patrol vessel
with a length of 80m and built to commercial standards and capable of carrying
light armament, nominally a main gun up to 40mm but has a flight deck for a
12-tonne helicopter, and is designed specifically for police and civilian patrol
purposes. The ship has a crew of 30 with accommodation for another 60, and a top
speed in the range of 20 – 25 knots.
Interestingly the ship has a cargo hold capable of taking 12 20ft containers *1.
The Sentinel is basically a Meko A100 type corvette of 2,000 tonnes
adapted for naval and policing missions. The ship would carry a crew of about 36
with additional accommodation for another 38 and up to 120 troops that can be
housed in additional containerised accommodation. The Sentinel also has a flight
deck for a 12-tonne helicopter and has a top speed in the 25 knot range and a
range of 4,000 miles at cruising speed (12knots).
The firm of Thyssen Krupp Marine Systems (TKMS)
is currently under the spotlight of an anti-corruption investigation in
Germany being undertaken by German police which is investigating a tender
between the company and Angola. South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper
referred to the investigation as “A whiff of rot
*2 in Angolan arms deal”.
TKMS is also involved in the supply of four Meko A200 frigates to the South
African Navy, a deal in which suspicions and
reports of corruption refuse to go away.
The M&G reported that Rear Admiral J Kamerman,
the project director of the South African Navy corvette acquisition *4
programme (actually the supply of frigates, which were
disguised *5 as corvettes), and who is
now employed by TKMS, played a
key role in marketing the German ships to
Angola. According to German sources Kamerman, who the police say is not a
suspect in the investigation, had his premises
searched in raids carried out by the German police and his laptop seized.
German newspapers quote the price tag for the Angolan corvette as €290m with
another €290m for the three patrol vessels, with the balance being for logistics
and simulators and other associated equipment.
With acknowledgements to
Terry Hutson and Ports and Ships.
*1Two for the main main oke
and one each for the other main okes to use as they see fit.
*2Litotes my dear fellow - this and the subsequent cover up
in both Germany and the RSA is the full stench.
*3They stick so good because they are so good.
*4They used to say that the achieving the impossible was
the art of politics (get our of jail free, get the corruption, fraud and racket
charges waived by NDPP), but buying 4 frigates called patrol corvettes at a
price of R6,873 billion with a R6,001 billion budget and a R2,6 billion combat
suite with a R1,147 billion budget and then becoming the supplier's Vice
President of International Sales