The SAAF Forum

Foreign warships arrive for inaugural naval exercise

By Dean Wingrin

After six months of planning, warships from Russia and China arrived in Cape Town this past weekend for the inaugural Exercise Mosi, a multinational maritime exercise hosted by South Africa.

The exercise is the first of its kind between China, Russia and South Africa and is scheduled to take place off the southern Cape coast over the period 25 – 30 November 2019.

According to the South African Navy (SA Navy), the exercise is primarily focused on maritime economic security, interoperability and maintaining the good relations between the participating navies.

Arrival day for the foreign warships was Sunday 24 November, with fleet tanker VJAZMA and rescue tug SB406 berthing inside Table Bay Harbour, joining SA Navy fleet support vessel SAS DRAKENSBERG and hydrographic survey vessel SAS PROTEA inside the commercial port.
At 13h45, a 21 Gun Salute was exchanged between the Russian Navy Slava-class missile cruiser MARSHALL USTINOV and the South African Navy battery on Lion’s Head which overlooks the harbour.

A 21 Gun salute is an international naval tradition and stems from the days of sail and wooden ships. As the ships’ guns were loaded with gunpowder and only had one projectile, the ship would fire its guns when entering a friendly harbour, in order to harmlessly expend the gunpowder, indicating the ship is not a threat. The gun battery ashore would then also harmlessly fire its guns to indicate that their guns have been rendered ineffective. This would indicate the ship is welcome to enter the harbour. This tradition evolved through the years and now the 21 gun salute is adopted by most navies worldwide.

Thereafter, MARSHALL USTINOV and the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 054A frigate WEI FANG berthed at V&A Waterfront Jetty 2, joining the SA Navy frigate SAS AMATOLA which had arrived the previous day.

The vessels were greeted by SA Navy Flag Officer Fleet, Rear Admiral Bulele Mhlana, PLAN Rear Admiral Zongcheng Liu and Russian Rear Admiral Vladimir Ivanovich Zemskov.

The exercise will be conducted over five days, with the first three days alongside and the last two days with the execution of a sea programme.

The theme of the exercise is The promotion of Safe Navigation and Maritime Economic Security, with the following strategic and operational objectives:
• Development of Chinese, Russian and South African relations through the reinforcement of Multinational Exercises between the three nations;
• Training of a Multinational Task Organisation to counter security threats at sea; and
• Demonstration of a multinational willingness to ensure regional maritime peace, security and stability.

The alongside phase will focus on finalisation of planning, finalisation of sea programmes as well as military social and cultural activities amongst others.

The Sea Phase, on 28 and 29 November, will focus on Surface Gunnery Exercise, Helicopter Cross Deck Landings, Boarding Operations and Disaster Control Exercises.

The visiting ships berthed at the V&A Waterfront Jetty 2 (the frigate SAS AMATOLA from the SA Navy, the cruiser MARSHALL USTINOV from the Russian Navy and the frigate WEI FANG from the PLAN will be open to the public on Tuesday 26 November 2019 between 09h30 and 13h00. Please note that the queue for the Russian cruiser MARSHALL USTINOV will be closing earlier.