South Africa's arms- deal frigates are being deployed to protect coastal soccer stadiums during the World Cup - but parliament wants proof that they are capable of doing the job.
'With our capability now, we have sufficient hardware to look after the World Cup. We don't need anybody to hold our hands'
Floating Their Boat: The SAS Mendi and its crew, above, will
help guard coastal World Cup sites such as Durban's Mabhida
Stadium, right
As concerns mount about a lack of fire-power due to a credit
crunch affecting the military, it emerged this week that
parliament's portfolio committee is still waiting for a World
Cup security briefing.
The briefing was cancelled last month, along with two other
briefings dealing with the general state of the army, navy and
air force.
"We have not seen the guarantees signed between government and
Fifa and we do not know what role the defence force will play
during the World Cup," said defence portfolio committee member
David Maynier. "We have never received the readiness briefings
and we therefore do not know what the capability gaps are for
the defence force, and what risks arise because of that."
Three of the four frigates, that together cost just under
R10-billion, will be deployed during the five-week soccer
tournament, while the fourth is undergoing maintenance.
Crew from the fourth frigate will be used to make up for a staff
shortage on the other vessels, which are due to be deployed off
Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth.
This week the Sunday Times established that:
- The national Treasury recently turned down a special defence force request for an additional R186-million to operate its vessels this financial year;
- Defence authorities reported a budget shortfall of R7.3-billion for the financial year, of which R3.8-billion was needed for operational costs. The navy shortfall was R687-million; and
- The defence force revealed that only two of the four frigates, and one of two new submarines, were "combat ready" at any given time.
While senior naval officers conceded the frigates could be better armed, they insisted they were more than ready to deal with security threats during the soccer tournament.
The navy has been gearing up for several months with full-scale naval exercises near Simon's Town naval base.
The Sunday Times visited the SAS Mendi, the latest frigate to arrive from the shipyard in Germany, and found that senior officers were concerned about the effect of the budget shortfalls.
But they insisted the fleet was prepared for the biggest tournament ever hosted in Africa.
"With our capability now, we have sufficient hardware to look after the World Cup," said Flag Officer Fleet Rear-Admiral Rusty Higgs. "We don't need anybody to hold our hands."
However, Higgs conceded that budget cuts were a serious challenge for general naval capability. He said the defence budget was only 1.2% of the country's gross domestic product when it should be nearer 2%.
"You can't operate a technologically advanced military with that type of money *1. South Africa has to be a responsible player at sea and we have to operate them (the frigates) to the highest level possible."
Captain Mickey Girsa, commanding officer of the frigate, SAS Amatola, said while the frigates were not armed to their maximum capability - due to financial constraints - they did not need to be "monsters" to be effective.
"We can make them into huge monsters, but we are happy with them as they are. For the World Cup there is nothing that can come as a threat that we can't deal with *2," Girsa said.
"There is nothing that would fly towards the stadium that the frigates would not take out."
Meanwhile, military commentators expressed mixed feelings about the frigates.
There are similar concerns about the SA Air Force's capability, particularly around the Gripen fighters - which are still being delivered.
The army has also raised eyebrows with news that only four infantry companies, about 600 soldiers, will be deployed from April to defend South Africa's land borders - a fraction of the 1800 required.
Defence experts have backed the military's call for cash. However, military spending needed to be balanced against socio-economic needs.
"There's no point in overdoing it. This is not the Falklands," said Leon Engelbrecht from DefenceWeb. He said the frigates were a sensible deterrent - but were no guarantee against a terrorist attack. "If somebody is determined to carry out a mass attack, you are lucky if you can stop it *4," Engelbrecht said.
With acknowledgements to Bobby Jordan and Sunday Times.
*1 That is true, but that was never the intention.
*2
He will shit himself stupid if he gets a call to action that a bandit is approaching The Cape Town Stadium at 650 knots from a direction over False Bay and just behind The Twelve Apostles and there's just 18 seconds to impact.
*3
If the target is flying between 2 kiloyards and 12 kiloyards distant, the frigate will have a probability of hardkill of between 40% and 0%
*4