As Rough As It May Seem,It's Still Steady As You Go...
Atlantic Ocean - A lone South African submarine has left some
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation commanders with red faces
on Tuesday as it "sank" all the ships of the Nato Maritime Group
engaged in exercises with the SA Navy off the Cape Coast.
The S101 - or the SAS Manthatisi - not only evaded detection by a
joint NATO and SA Navy search party, comprising several ships
combing the search area with radar and sonar; it also sank all the
ships in the fleet taking part.
Several times during the exercise that lasted throughout Monday
night and Tuesday morning a red square lit up the screens where
the surface ships thought the submarine was, but it remained elusive.
This gave Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota something to brag about
when he landed on the SAS Amatola to speak to the media on Tuesday.
"To be able to frustrate detection by NATO nations is no mean
achievement; it speaks of the excellence of the equipment we required
for this purpose."
And while this left one of the world's strongest military alliances
frustrated, it was also a sign that the group had a capable partner in
Africa, Lekota said.
"With sustained co-operation with foreign forces such as NATO, we are
well positioned to respond to any unforeseen circumstances that may
confront either ourselves or other regions," he said.
Lekota was quite clear that a working relationship with NATO was
desired.
"They have a partner of reliable capability because we are forging
working relations, we are building mutual confidence for what can be
done and what we can do together as NATO and SA or as NATO and
Southern African nations," Lekota said.
These sentiments were echoed by the commander of the NATO maritime
group.
Rear Admiral Mahon, who said the deployment would see the group
sailing right around Africa.
"I can't speak for what the future will hold but certainly this was valuable.
Africa is a strategic continent. The freedom of the seas, energy, security,
they are all critical issue to NATO countries," he said.
The exercises would continue till the end of the week and would include
live fire exercises, ship to ship refuelling, search and seizure exercises.
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