The South African Valour class frigates reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

South African Valour class frigates

The South African Valour class frigates will be (as of early 2004) the major surface units of the South African Navy. The German manufacturer designates them as the MEKO A-200 class, succesors to the MEKO class.

Table of contents

1 Ships of the class 2 History 3 Armament 4 External links

Ships of the class

ship name	Builder	laid down	launched	delivered	in service
SAS Amatola F145	Blohm+Voss Hamburg	2 Aug 2001	6 Jun 2002	2003	2005
SAS Isandlwana F146	Howaldtswerke Kiel	26 Oct 2001	5 Dec 2002	2004	2005
SAS Spioenkop F147	Blohm+Voss Hamburg	28 Feb 2002	2 Aug 2003		2005
SAS Mendi F148	Howaldtswerke Kiel	28 Jun 2002	Oct 2003

History

The four Valour class frigates are a German design by the firm Blohm and Voss, designated as MEKO A-200 by the shipbuilders, and are part of Blohm and Voss's MEKO series of frigates. Similar ships are being built in Poland for the Polish navy.

They are/were built by Blohm and Voss shipyards in Germany, two in Hamburg and the other two in Kiel.

Armament

Each of the Valour class frigates has the following armament:

• One 76 mm Oto Breda gun.
• Two 35 mm LIW (Denel) 35DPG dual purpose twin-barreled guns.
• Two 20 mm Oerlikon Mk1 cannon.
• Eight MBDA MM 40 Exocet Block 2 surface-to-surface missiles (mounted in two four-cell launchers).
• Sixteen Umkhonto surface-to-air missiles (mounted in two eight-cell vertical launchers).
• Torpedoes using two twin 324mm tubes (i.e. four tubes in total).

Each vessel will also carry a Westland Super Lynx medium-sized helicopter.

External links

• Naval Technology page on MEKO A

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