South African Submarine News
South Africa is in the process of purchasing three new submarines from Germany. An article from SABC News indicates that the state of training of the crews is such that the submarines may end up getting transported by barge from Germany to South Africa, owing to concerns that the new crews, which are to be made up of 75% blacks, are not up to speed, such that the SA Navy fears another problem like that suffered by HMCS Chicoutimi. It sounds like South Africa has a similar problem as that apparently faced by Canada, in that there are too few experienced submariners to operate the boats, and no real opportunity for at-sea experience. I'm surprised that Germany doesn't offer to help provide the at-sea qualification rides that would help alleviate the problem; I wonder if internal South African politics are a stumbling block.
Going deep...
posted by Bubblehead at 12:37 AM
3 Comments:
There was a problem with the crew experience issues for the Upholder project, in that sea time requirements were dropped from ~120 days to 5 in the Great Dolphin Giveaway. However, I don't think that had anything to do with Chicoutimi's fire. She had about the most experienced crew in the Canadian submarine service. Everybody on board had experience on the other three boats.
3/02/2005 9:19 AM
I agree that it looks unlikely that crew inexperience was a factor in the Chicoutimi fire, the fact that the public may perceive that this might have been a problem is what seems to be driving the South African decision in this case.
3/02/2005 10:00 PM
The problem in South Africa is that the racist Government has driven most non-black sailors out of the navy. Those left are suffering blatant discrimination. To deliberately promote unqualified, inexperienced and unsuitable officers and sailors for racist reasons is destroying the SAN.
1/25/2010 1:22 AM
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