SA Navy spent a fifth of targeted hours at sea last year

The South African Navy spent 7 300 hours at sea during the 2012/13 financial year, just one fifth of the targeted number, according to the Department of Defence’s most recent annual report.

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) was targeted to spend 35 000 hours at sea as part of maritime defence between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2013, but only achieved 7 338.55 hours. This was due to “vessels that were delayed in maintenance cycles, operational defects that prevented them from going to sea and longer than anticipated repair times.”

The DoD said that one of the reasons for the fewer hours spent at sea was because the Chief Joint Operations did not require many force employment hours and that there was a delay in receiving presidential approval to assist Mozambique with counter-piracy operations in the Mozambique Channel.

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