South African Navy
The South African Navy is the naval warfare branch of the South African National Defence Force.
The Navy is primarily engaged in maintaining a conventional military deterrent, participating in counter-piracy operations, fishery protection, search and rescue, and upholding maritime law enforcement for the benefit of South Africa and its international partners.
Today the South African Navy is one of the most capable naval forces in the African region, operating a mixed force of sophisticated warships, submarines, patrol craft, and auxiliary vessels, with over 7,000 personnel; including a marine force.
With formerly deep historical and political connections to the United Kingdom, the first emergence of a naval organisation was the creation of the South African Division of the British Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1913, before becoming an nominally independent naval service for the Union of South Africa in 1922.
In its history, South African naval vessels and personnel have participated in the First and Second World Wars, as well as the South African Border War. In the apartheid post-war era, the South African Navy was extensively aligned with NATO and other Western nations against the Soviet Bloc.
History
Beginnings
Officially, the South African Navy can trace its origins back to the creation of the South African Naval Service on 1 April 1922. Unofficially, however, the Navy has an unbroken association with the Natal Naval Volunteers, formed in Durban on 30 April 1885, and the Cape Naval Volunteers, formed in Cape Town in 1905. On 1 July 1913, following the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, the South African Division of the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve was established, although with complete organisational and operational control being directed by the Royal Navy.First World War
, South Africa went to war against the Central Powers on 4 August 1914, despite significant Afrikaner opposition. A total of 412 South Africans served in the RNVR during the war, with 164 members volunteering for the Royal Navy directly. One officer and eight ratings died during the course of the war. South Africans would see service on warships in European waters and the Mediterranean, as well as participate in the land campaigns in German South West Africa and German East Africa. Under Royal Navy jurisdiction, the RNVR patrolled South African waters in converted fishing vessels, helping in mine clearance in response to the operations of the German raider in 1917, as well as protecting the strategically important Royal Navy naval base at Simon's Town.Interwar
On 1 April 1922, the South African Naval Service was formed and, alongside the RNVR, tasked with the protection of territorial waters, minesweeping and hydrography. In the same year, the SANS commissioned the small hydrographic survey ship HMSAS Protea, two minesweeping converted trawlers HMSAS Immortelle and HMSAS Sonneblom, and the training ship General Botha – all formerly in Royal Navy service. As a result of the Great Depression in 1929, coupled with lack of government investment, the SANS by 1939 had been forced to return all vessels to the Royal Navy. At the outbreak of the Second World War, the service had only three officers and three ratings in its ranks.Second World War
The British declaration of war against Germany on 3 September 1939 threw South Africa into a constitutional dilemma due to her status as an autonomous Dominion within the Commonwealth. Prime Minister J.B.M. Hertzog and other anti-British factions of the coalition United Party called for strict neutrality, whilst the more anglophile Deputy Prime Minister Jan Smuts advocated that South Africa was constitutionality, and morally, obliged to support Britain and fight fascism. Two days later, after a close parliamentary vote of 80 to 67 in favour of Smuts, South Africa followed Britain and declared war on Germany.During October 1939, Rear-Admiral Guy Halifax, a retired Royal Navy officer living in South Africa, was appointed Director of the South African Naval Service, later renamed Seaward Defence Force in January 1940. Overseeing a large industrial program of converting civilian whalers and fishing trawlers into military vessels, despite being highly primitive, over 80 such craft would go on to be the backbone of the South African naval forces.
In South African waters, the SDF, in partnership with the Royal Navy, ensured maritime control around the strategic Cape Sea route and was primarily involved in coastal patrol, mine clearance, and significant anti-submarine operations between 1942 and 1945 due to a sustained U-boat offensive, with over 100 merchant ships being sunk off the South African coast.South African naval vessels similarly contributed to the Mediterranean theatre, and later the Far East. From 1941, South Africa assisted in escorting convoys along the North African coast, including the resupply and eventual evacuation of Tobruk, embarked on mine clearance operations, successfully engaged enemy submarines and undertook harbour salvage tasks. In 1942, a unified national naval service emerged following the successful amalgamation of the SDF and RNVR, creating the South African Naval Forces. As the war came to its end, South Africa received its first purpose-built warships, three frigates from the Royal Navy. Deployed to the Far East under British command, South Africa later contributed to operations to liberate Japanese held territory.
In total, over 10,000 service personnel volunteered for service in the SANF, and its predecessors, with 324 losing their lives and 26 battle honours gained.
Post war
A year after the end of hostilities, on 1 May 1946 South African Naval Forces were reconstituted as part of the Union Defence Force before undertaking its final name change in July 1951, when the SANF officially became known as the South African Navy. The year 1948 was a turning point, not only for South Africa as a country following the National Party's electoral victory, but also the direction of the Navy. British influence became increasingly diminished and curtailed across the service. In 1952, the previously used ship prefix of HMSAS changed to just SAS, in 1957, the Royal Navy transferred control of Simon's Town naval base to the SA Navy after 70 years of occupancy and later, in 1959, the St Edward's Crown, which had featured in the Navy cap badge and other insignia, was replaced by the Lion of Nassau from South Africa's coat of arms.In the immediate post-war years the South African Navy underwent significant levels of qualitative, and quantitative, expansion as the Royal Navy disposed of its surplus war materiel. In 1947, two surplus s, were acquired from the United Kingdom, and , as well as the HMS Rockrose which was converted into the hydrographic survey ship. In 1950, South Africa further expanded her naval capability and purchased the first of two former British W-class destroyers,, in 1952, and later, the Type 15 anti-submarine frigate .
By the early 1960s, the South African Navy was fast reaching its highpoint of international inclusion and is generally considered to be the golden age of a well balanced, modern, and effective service optimised for conventional naval engagement alongside friendly Western international partners.
From 1962 to 1964, the South African Navy received three British-built Type 12M frigates which formed the President-class :, and respectively. These were first rate, ocean going fast fleet anti-submarine escorts that propelled the South African Navy into the age of a modern warship operator on equal footing with the West. The order of three from France in 1968—to operate submarines for the first time—again catapulted the service further. The early 1970s would see the South African Navy operating at the height of its blue-water power projection ability with the first of the Daphné-class submarines,, being commissioned in 1970, with and entering service the following year.
The second half of the 1970s however saw South Africa facing severe amounts of international isolation and criticism. In 1973 the UN labelled the policy of apartheid a "Crime against Humanity", magnified further by the brutal state repression and subsequent mass incarcerations and deaths following the Soweto uprising in 1976 and the death of prominent anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in 1977. The following year a UN arms embargo, loosely in place since 1962, became mandatory. The ensuing international economic disinvestment from South Africa was stepped up, placing huge strains on the economy. Coupled with these severe problems, the cornerstones of the country's regional foreign policy faced collapse and complete transformation with the end of Portuguese rule in Angola and Mozambique in 1975, and the negotiated settlement in Ian Smith's Rhodesia to the end of white minority rule in 1979. As South Africa became increasingly involved in the Border War in South West Africa and Angola, the Navy began to readjust its previous international outlook and organisation. The then Minister of Defence, P. W. Botha successfully sought military connections with Israel and nine "Reshef"— in South African service—missile strike craft were ordered in 1974. Following the Soweto uprising and subsequent mandatory arms embargo, South Africa had been forced to accept the cancellation of another significant naval procurement of two new Type-69A light frigates and two s from France.
In 1987, South Africa commissioned the locally designed and built Fleet Replenishment ship. Constructed in Durban, it remains the largest and most sophisticated warship to ever have built in South Africa. Three years earlier, the Navy's other support ship,, had undergone a refit that greatly increased her amphibious capabilities. A real boost for the Navy's influence, Tafelberg could deploy a company strength landing force, six landing craft, two medium helicopters and be equipped with a small hospital. Throughout the decade, the South African Navy continued to participate in the Border War and coastal protection. For 23 years the South African Navy maintained determined sea control around Southern Africa and provided valuable support to land operations. By the end of the 1980s, as white minority rule was coming to a negotiated end, the Navy had lost all of its major surface warships, had a drastically reduced anti-submarine/anti-aircraft capability across the board, and almost complete international isolation. As South Africa disentangled itself from external and internal security operations, the South African Defence Force underwent severe budgetary cuts. The Navy endured a reduction of personnel by 23%, the disbandment of the Marines, the closure of two Naval Commands, two Naval Bases at Cape Town and Walvis Bay, and the termination of the relatively advanced program to domestically build replacement submarines. A positive for the Navy during this period however was the acquisition of the multipurpose sealift/replenishment ship, a former Soviet-built Arctic supply vessel, in September 1992 as a replacement for the 35-year-old Tafelberg.
Despite the austere cutbacks, the Navy was leading the way for a South Africa that was slowly being welcomed back into the international community, even before the landmark elections of 1994. In 1990, the survey vessel became the first South African naval vessel to visit Europe since 1972, and in the same year and two, and, sailed for Taiwan in what would be the first time South African vessels had been in the Far East since 1945. Other international visits in the following years included Zaire, Kenya, Bangladesh, Turkey, France, Portugal, and Uruguay. As the "Rainbow nation" was lauded following the ANC victory in the first free democratic elections in 1994, one of the starkest symbols of this new era was the explosion of foreign warships and dignitaries visiting South African ports, often from countries that did not have a previous connection, such as Russia, Poland and Japan. In 1994, 21 foreign vessels from eight countries called at South African ports, with 26 visits from 12 countries in 1995, and 27 from ten countries in 1996. In 1997 the navy celebrated 75 years, with 15 countries sending ships for the festivities.
The acute need to re-equip the navy, including the wider Armed Forces after the lifting of apartheid-era sanctions, was addressed by the Strategic Defence Package of 1999. Better known as the infamous "Arms Deal", the acquisitions in the package, and those persons involved, have been repeatedly subject to substantive allegations of corruption, fraud and bribery. A total of R30 billion was pledged to the purchase of modern military equipment. For the navy, its share led to a total transformation from a "brown-water" force of ageing missile patrol craft and short-range submarines, to a force with significant "green-water" combat capability once again. In 2001, with an initial request of five vessels, later reduced to four, the German Meko A200SAN general purpose frigate design was procured, along with four British Super Lynx naval helicopters, and three German Type 209/1400 diesel-powered submarines. Also under construction from 1991 were three locally built T-Craft inshore patrol boats. As South Africa approached the millennium, and beyond, the ANC government gradually returned the Navy to a level of maritime power last seen in the 1960s and 1970s, and successfully reintegrated the service back into maritime operations with regional and international partners.