via Naval Today.
he ship is being sent on a month-long patrol Aimed at strengthening South African Navy's relations with its African counterparts.SAS Spioenkop is the third of four Valour class frigates of the South African Navy built by the European South African Corvette Consortium.The ship is 121m long and 18 meters wide.We once had gear that made allies envious.
The frigates of this class were built to a modern stealth design to avoid enemy radar and infrared detection.
The ship is distinctive with a new propulsion system, Comprising of a water-jet drive, in addition to two propellers.
During the patrol, SAS Spioenkop sea will attend the concert in Senegal, and visit some African countries.
She is expected to return home at the end of November.
Now their stuff makes us dream of equally capable gear.
Even tiny, backwards, economically messed up S. Africa has a more capable "LCS" than we do.
Don't get me wrong, the Valour class Frigate is something the US Navy could, would and SHOULD have gotten in the First place. S.Africa has a more Capable "LCS" than we so and it's a SHAME.
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of the MEKO class, packs quite a lot punch:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.naval-technology.com/projects/meko/
But for many that have bought the USA only crap and it's not from LMT and is affordable, they say it's Euro trash.....
I'm too a Big Fan of the MEKO class. They pack alot for a frigate and leave room for extra growth. Which is why the US navy should have brought the MEKO design and have it built in America. The Germans do know how to build a frigate with Littoral capability.
Deletehttp://www.thyssenkrupp-marinesystems.com/de/home.html
The Valour uses MANY non USA subsystem that must be replaced with USA made ones.
ReplyDeleteIt would never be used by the USN as it is a foreign design.
The Valour is also a frigate, not a LCS.
Oh, and S Africa can only afford 4, and corruption will ensure that 1 or 2 will be unusable in a few years time.
Deleteyou can throw ship classification out the window. LCS is a made up term because the Navy wanted to be hip. the LCS is a multirole frigate that is in essence an Oliver Perry Replacement. as far as corruption in S. Africa. who are we to throw stones. the US is at least as bad and everyone knows it. we just cling to false superiority. before we yell at others about having a messy house we should clean up our own.
DeleteWhich is why wer're envious of countries that have frigates that the US Navy should have gotten.
DeleteCan't find the approximate price of a MEKO? Anybody know? How much does it cost compared to a LCS?
DeleteI think the fact that it isn't American and USN can't use it is bogus. We have been told by Navy officials that they want something small and doesn't "overwhelm" our allies. So what better way to not "overwhelm" them than to operate the same freaking boat that our allies operates. MEKO class has proven very popular and I doubt that they all the same version since they are "modular" so it should have been no big deal to put a US radar and US VLS.
our allies operate better kit than we do. we have LCS, they have MEKO. we have Bradley, they have Puma. we have LAV-25, they have Japanese maneuver combat vehicle.
Deletewe're not world leaders anymore and in many cases even our smaller allies operate better stuff. its depressing.
Hold up Sol, the Puma only carries 6 troops, only 2/3s of a US army squad.
DeleteThe GCV HAS to carry 9 men. Also, the LAV-25 and Japanese MCV are 2 different vehicles.
There is definitely a need to have ships dedicated to protecting the littoral/coastal zone, it makes sense that these ships are different from very expensive(both) extremely long range cruisers and long range destroyers as they both have different operating environments, requirements and missions to the LCS which is tasked with protecting/securing friendly (and hostile?) littoral zones.
ReplyDeleteWhether this is provided by one type of ship or several types of ships providing a wide range of balanced capabilities to provide a layered defence is another story. For instance the inner layer could compose of shore based ASM, ABM and AA batteries, with skjold-class patrol boats in the next layer, followed by a composition of Absalon-class support ships (provinding multi-mission mineWF, marine ops), Iver Huitfeldt-class frigates (for AA and ABM) and SSKs, outside the LCS you might have a thin layer of cruisers for Early-warning and then you might have a layered aircraft defence flying over the whole structure(AEWC,AS&SUW planes,fighters) . In this way the enemy must systematically work through the layers like pealing an onion which is difficult because of the way the units work together.
If you look at the chinese force-structure, it really looks like this is what they are trying to do (only I believe they lie and that the 'kinetic energy penetrator ballistic missiles' actually have nuclear warheads for naval nuking carrier-battle-groups). They even have the whole hi-low thing going with their ariforce.
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ReplyDelete