As Rough As It May Seem,It's Still Steady As You Go...
Picture from Day One of exercise AMAZOLO includes SAS ISANDWLANA, NRP ALVARESCABRAL AND USS NORMANDY again with HMCS TORONTO.
Embarked onboard all the NATO vessels (except FGS SPESSART and HDMS OLFERT FISCHER) are representatives from both the South African and international media. I am currently embarked on the HNLMS EVERTSEN, along with numerous other media members.
The ships met with the South African taskforce (SAS AMATOLA, SAS ISANDLWANA and SAS ´MANTHATISI) at a position west of Cape Point around 13h00. For the remainder of the afternoon they were involved in a photo exercise where the ships had to do various fleetwork manoeuvres, which resulted in them sailing quite close to each other.
Upon completion of the photo exercise the ships detached in a classical starburst formation (imagine all 9 ships sailing very close to each in the same direction and then ´bursting´ from there into different directions).
After that there was an evolution where SAS MANTHATISI sailed past the ships that were all sailing behind each other. During this sail past the submarine dived and showed her various masts to assist the bridge crews in identifying the various configurations. The rest of the evening will be spent in active submarine exercises where the surface ships are to try and detect the submarine. We trust that the crew of SAS MANTHATISI will pose a challenge to the other ships whilst they try to detect her.
The crew and captain of HNLMS EVERTSEN are very accommodating and friendly. The ship itself is quite impressive at 144 m in length and a displacement of 6500 tons. She is an air defence and command frigate of the ZEVEN PROVINCIEN CLASS. She has a crew of only 165 and boasts some of the most advanced air defence sensors and weapons in the world. The ship itself is very spacious, mainly due to the fact that she is designed for, but not used as, a command vessel. This means that there are many compartments designed for the use of command staff members that can be used for something else. She was commissioned in 2005, which means that she is quite modern.
Some interesting features onboard include a dedicated bakery that bakes fresh bread and rolls daily, an internet café with 3 computers permanently connected to the internet, a games room with Playstation and Xbox consoles and a satellite phone where sailors can phone home for 10 minutes at a time.
The Royal Dutch Navy is a large Navy with more than 16 500 members and more than 30 vessels. The Officer Commanding HNLMS EVERTSEN, Cdr. Rob Kramer, indicated that the Royal Dutch Navy is busy transforming from a blue water navy with a large frigate fleet to a brown water navy focusing on expeditionary operations. To this extent her frigate fleet of nearly 20 vessels has been reduced to less that 8.
Tomorrow promises to be an interesting day with more activities between the ships, a helicopter transfer to SAS AMATOLA, boarding exercises and more. The media will fly off SAS AMATOLA Tuesday evening, while the Exercises will continue until Friday.
A further update will follow.
One of Two offical photos of Exercise
HMCS Toronto (Rear Right Flank)
Day 2 of Exercise AMAZOLO (04 Sep 07) was the day on which the South African Navy (SAN) measured itself against the best in the world – and won!
The SAN submarine, SAS ‘MANTHATISI managed to penetrate an anti-submarine screen of 7 ships (which included the VALOUR CLASS frigates SAS AMATOLA and SAS ISANDLWANA) undetected and “sank” the high value target that the screen was trying to protect. After this she turned on the protecting screen and managed to “sink” the balance of the remaining surface ships.
The South African media, and indeed the public at large, are celebrating the fact that the SA Navy has proven to be equal – and in some instances superior – to some of the best Navy vessels afloat. The new vessels acquired by the South African government are proving their worth and the SA Navy are using them to reaffirm its ability to effectively protect South Africa’s maritime interests off the Cape of Storms.
The significance of this for the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), and the SAN in particular is profound. The force-multiplying effect of a submarine was clearly demonstrated during this exercise. This proves that the area off Cape Point is an ideal submarine hunting area – and our submarines crews are good hunters indeed!
In addition to the successes achieved by the submarine, there were also other serials where both the frigates and the WARRIOR CLASS Strike Craft, SAS GALESHEWE performed very well indeed. Both frigates participated in a number of complex anti-surface evolutions. There were also a simulated attack by the SAS GALESHEWE, boarding exercises between various ships (SAS AMATOLA was “boarded” by marines from NRP ALVARES CABRAL) and helicopter exercises.
The Minister of Defence, Mr M. Lekota, flew to SAS AMATOLA and hosted a media conference for the various media members embedded on the NATO ships. During the media conference he reaffirmed that the SA Navy is a force to reckoned with. Speaking about the feats of SAS ‘MANTHATISI, Mr Lekota said: “To be able to frustrate detection by NATO nations is no mean achievement, it speaks of the excellence of the equipment we acquired for this purpose”.
The regard that the crews of the NATO vessels have for the SAN has also increased tremendously during the past few days. The successes achieved by the SAN clearly demonstrates the high level of training and the proficiency of our crews the properly handle the advanced ships and weapon systems that we can boast with in the SAN.
The rest of today (05 Sep 07) will comprise of more exercise serials such as gunnery exercises where the ships will shoot at a simulated air and surface target, as well as other fleet work evolutions.
Posts
