The SAAF Forum

Didn't realise the MRS was parachute qualified let alone qualified for a water jump. They seem to be turning into a bit more that just a marine infantry force.

Not all are Parbat qualified. But there are quite a lot of them that are. The basic MRS marine is infantry part 1, boats crew, fast rope and sea boarding.

Are they HALO/HAHO qualified?

Just tracked Berlin off the coast of Sierra Leone, moving at an impressive 18.1 knots!!

Is she still up for arriving on Sunday?

Didn't realise the MRS was parachute qualified let alone qualified for a water jump.

Navies learn good lessons from Ex Good Hope

By Dean Wingrin

Now in its third week, both the South African and German navies are learning and improving from partaking in Exercise Good Hope VI.
The exercise is the sixth iteration of the bi-annual maritime interaction between the South African Navy, the South African Air Force and the German Navy, with additional support from two civilian Learjets which flew from Germany to act as aerial targets.

The overarching aim of Exercise Good Hope VI is to achieve and maintain levels of readiness required for the respective navies to be able to fulfil their maritime tasks.

Captain Sikumbuzo Msikinya, the Commander of the SA Navy Task Group, says that the exercise “is and always will be conducted in the spirit of learning and observing between the two partner nations who are brotherly navies in maritime training.”

The principal objectives of the German Navy Training Task Group TG 5010.01 is to ensure the availability of the German Navy Training Task Group as a reserve force of the Navy, to establish, maintain and improve operational readiness and to train officer cadets of Crew VII/2014.

From the German perspective, Good Hope VI performs a well-designed cornerstone for all operational readiness work.
“By the end of the exercise, the German Task Group will have completed her operational program and stands ready for any maritime task which may occur,” Captain Andreas Seidel, Commander German Task Group, told defenceWeb.

As Seidel explained, the combined maritime task group will operate under a constantly high threat conditions “which reflect the circumstances of high intensity warfare.”

For the South Africans, the exercise is an opportunity for newly qualified crew to upgrade their skills and levels of capability.
Msikinya told defenceWeb that the exercise has been going very well. Approximately 75% of the frigate SAS Spioenkops’ crew are new and were operating at a basic level of operational capability. The new crew was a result of the Navy cycling experienced crew around the four frigate fleet, whilst other experienced members undergo further training.

Msikinya proudly explained that, after the first three weeks of activity, the crew of Spioenkop are now at a functional level of operating, meaning that they can “function and actually fight the ship.”


“Through the force integration training we were able to actually bring them to a state that is actually far above the current official state they are in,” Msikinya said.

“This (exercise) has been very productive and very, very beneficial to us as a navy,” he continued. “We rarely have this opportunity of actually exercising with so many assets at the same time.”

The first Harbour Training phase of the Exercise commenced on 3 March and allowed the force members to get familiar with each other and to cover safety and other aspects.

The serialised phase took place between 9 and 19 March and comprised Force Integration Training and Combat Enhancement, using various serials such as seamanship and tactical exercises. This included helicopter cross deck operations, Officer-of-the –Watch training, gunnery exercises using the two LearJets and SAAF Gripens, anti-submarine exercises and a multi-threat exercise.

Unfortunately the River Class coastal minehunter SAS Umzimkulu was also forced to withdraw. She had recently undergone a refit and there were still certain aspects that required further attention.

Another disappointment was that low cloud prevented a SAAF C-130 Hercules from dropping Special Forces to the submarine SAS Manthatisi that was waiting below.

This preparation phase will culminate in the tactical exercise and missile firing phase at the Overberg Test Range, commencing on 23 March. The German Navy will launch the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow ship-borne anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapon system and the RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) infrared homing surface-to-air missile. The main 76mm gun and smaller calibre weapons will also be used against air and surface targets.

Not to be outdone, the SAS Spioenkop will fire two Umkhonto vertically-launched, high-velocity, infrared homing surface-to-air missiles (SAM) manufactured by Denel Dynamics. The South African frigate will also make use of her main 76mm gun and smaller weapons.

Referring to the missile firings, Msikinya says that “we are very much looking forward (to the firings) and we are certainly very excited.”

Seidel explained that Exercise Good Hope is more than just an exercise with the South African Navy.

“It is more than just an exercise partner. We say that Exercise Good Hope proves what brother navies can do.”

“We believe no nation alone can do maritime security on its own. We are dependent on our partners and the South African Navy is a very special partner to us.”

Commander Charl Maritz, Chief of Staff to the Commander of the SA Navy Task Group, told defenceWeb that the South African and German navies had done a number of exercises together.

“(At) every one we relearn and we grow,” he said. “What the South African Navy benefits in particular from the interaction with the German Navy is the practice of the multi-warfare disciplines at sea. The anti-air warfare, anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare.”

The exercise is due for completion on 27 March.

Close call after Navy apparently fires on fishing boat during Ex Good Hope

By Dean Wingrin

he crew of a southern Cape fishing boat had a close call when a warship taking part in Exercise Good Hope VI accidently fired on them in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Commercial fisherman and skipper Anthony Day, with nine crew members, launched from Struisbaai harbour at about 02h30 in his 28-foot ski boat. They intended heading to Twelve Mile Bank, SSW of Struisbaai, to fish for Geelbeck.

However, in the pitch black of night and without warning, three cannon rounds landed in the water less than 15 meters in front of them.

Describing his “pretty horrific and very stressful” experience to defenceWeb, a traumatised Day explained that while he was waiting for his crew before launching, a charter boat operator arrived, towing a 14ft radio-controlled speed boat. The black-painted boat featured a radar reflector and a German technician commenced pre-launch activities. Day spoke to them and was informed that the boat was going to be used as a target at the Denel Overberg Test Range, approximately 20 nautical miles to the northeast.

Another source told defenceWeb that although boats in the area of the test range are warned of shooting activities; those from Struisbaai Harbour don't because “it's quite a distance away from where they conduct their exercises.”

Day launched his boat whilst the target boat was still tied up alongside the quay. He headed in a south-south-westerly direction opposite to that of the Denel test range.

Approximately two miles from the fishing bank, Day saw, in the darkness, a ship with lights on approximately one nautical mile away, about to cross paths with him. Lights of another ship was seen further in the distance.

“All of a sudden, shots were fired,” Day recounted. Three heavy-calibre rounds, fired in quick succession, landed less than 15 metres in front of them. “My ears were ringing, my legs were shacking, I could smell the gunpowder,” Day said as his crewmembers began shouting at him, “there was pandemonium.”

Day immediately put on his bright deck lights so that the people on the boat could be seen. Day says that immediately after he turned his deck lights on, the warship “switched its lights off.”

“I immediately changed my course away from him and opened up to full throttle in a westerly direction.”

When they arrived at the fishing bank, Day radioed the naval ship twice, but without reply. He contacted Cape Town Radio, telling them he'd been shot at.

Cape Town Radio made contact with the warship and reported back to Day that he didn’t “have to worry as the commander of the ship says that they won’t be firing at me anymore. It was an error.”

It was at this stage, looking back at the ship with the lights of Struisbaai and Agulhas in the background, that Day could clearly see the outline of a warship moving slowly to the right, with only the mast and starboard lights visible.

Although Day has submitted a report to the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA), he has yet to be contacted by the SA Navy.

SA Navy fleet headquarters in Simon’s Town said it was investigating the alleged incident and a statement would be issued in due course.

This week was the third operational week for Exercise Good Hope VI with German and South African frigates doing live fire exercises off the coast of the Overberg Test Range, a declared live firing area. Both tactical phases and missile firing were done using RIM-7 Sea Sparrow short range anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapons and RIM-116 rolling airframe missiles as well as Umkhonto infrared homing missiles, 76mm guns and smaller weapons.