Posted on 06/28/2004 10:34:34 AM PDT by jriemer
The third new stealth corvette for the South African Navy arrived at the Simon’s Town naval base from Germany yesterday (Sunday, 30 May 2004).
SAS Spioenkop is the third in a series of four Meko A200-SAN class corvette/frigates ordered from the German frigate consortium, and follows SAS Amatola and SAS Isandlwana, which arrived in November and March respectively (see reports in this column dated 15 March 2004, 25 February 2004 and 11 November 2003).
A fourth corvette, SAS Mendi is expected in Simon’s Town later this year.
Of note, the "German frigate consortium" mentioned in the article is the same shipyard that built the Bismark and the Graf Spree.
My guess is, since this is the new prevailing ship designs, it's so they will be harder to hit.
Because they want the latest and greatest.
I think Mandela's pro communist and jihadist paradise wants to wreak havoc on shipping at a time they deem opportune.
They're not nearly as "stealthy" as, say, the F-117 and Stealth Bomber.
Just a few changes in the superstructure profile to make it a little harder to pick up on the edge of a radar's range.
Considering that most of the damage inflicted by AQ (or its allies) against shipping was done in port, collison or with mines, is there a real big advantage being a stealth ship against "low tech" foes?
This was on TV last night, and I wondered as well.
The idea I settled on was that smugglers have plenty of resources and would use radar to avoid detection. The use of a stealth ship would make the smugglers job more difficult.
Are the materials to make stealthy vehicles available on the open market?
Oh, come on - this is a clear computer graphics...
South Africa's defense expenditures have nothing to do with defense needs or geopolitics, and everything to do with corrupt government officials taking massive bribes from the international arms industry. There have been major scandals about it, but the ANC is so entrenched in power that they can just about whatever they want without recriminations.
The whole naval stealth concept is somewhat overrated, IMHO.
In terms of the US Navy, since a CV sticks out like a sore thumb, there isn't much point to the escorts being stealthy.
Probably the stealthiest ship right now is the French Lafayette class, but you sacrifice a LOT to get stealth; the thing barely has any weapons.
Oh, I see - the real 'stealth ship' is invisible...
While materials play a role, stealth has more to do with how the exterior of something is arranged than what is is made of (particularly in the case of the MEKO frigate.)
It's a question of number crunching, estimating what radar-cross section a given shape of a ship will have on computer, and then testing those shapes.
And the deal with "stealth" ships when you're building ships for export now is you HAVE to claim it's "stealthy" now.
Stealth is the equivalent of "Low Carb" now if you're selling health food. There's no real definition of what "stealthy" is. All you have to do is lop off some crap that stuck out out the superstructure and lit up radars on your old ship design, and, voila! you can now advertise your slightly modified design as a "stealth ship" for clueless foreign governments.
We have a winner! And bribes for foreign officials are tax deductible (I believe) in Germany.
Read: "The Pentagon's New Map"
South Africa is about the only country in Africa participating the the new global security sphere.
I think they're buying this new class of ships simply because these are the ships of the future. I happened to see a TV program on stealth ships last night and many countries are building these ships, including our own. Most of these ships are also built with a low heat signature.
Does it have any VLS missiles or just the gun?
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