The SAAF Forum

The Chief of SAN went for a ''spin'' with Rear-Admiral Rusty Higgs on one of these during the world cup when visiting deployed members in Durban.



Don't think the navy is looking to replace the harbour patrol boats as yet but this could be a good option. With a top speed of 40 knots this boat is marketed as a long range interception boat.

_________________
"It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious."

Saw a couple of these on lowbed trucks yesterday near SimonsTown.

42 Feet - If they were 42 metres long they would be almost the same size of the strike craft!
Are these perhaps the Recces' new fast boats?

yes 42 ft it is roger sorry from that.

_________________
"It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious."

No problem, everyone makes typos sometimes.
Are they the Recces' boats?

Manufacturer's website: http://fbdesign.it/b42rib.php

OK, so while all the guys were sitting at the end of the runway at CTN with the A380 Airbus visit- a pair of hese "new" toys were out and about in False Bay, Mon, Tues this week. Both nice days, but hazy mist playing havoc with pics. (42ft)

In the DKB photo, what is that gun turret thingy on the shore, pictured just above her aft helicopter deck?

_________________
A plan is simply a basis for change.

Great shots Doug


That would be this one in front of the old pump-house .. as to what it is ... erm Eugene

_________________
Brent Best

Is it the forward deck gun from a President class frigate?

_________________
A plan is simply a basis for change.

No. It is a Vickers DP twin 4-inch on (I think) a mark 19 mounting. This gun dates back to the 1930's and once adorned a number of SA Navy vessels, the Algerine class minesweepers, the Loch class frigates, the type 15 frigate and the two W class destroyers - where the last pair were still in use on the SAS Jan van Riebeeck till the seventies. A fairly useful, if totally handraulic, mount - a good gun crew could achieve rates of around 20 rounds a minute for a brief period although I think the official rate of fire was about 10 rpm. It fired a 35 pound round to a maximum range of about 10 nautical miles. A bewildering array of control systems, worldwide, had this gun slaved to them - on the JvR it was an Orion Mk 10. A zillion years younger and more modern than the gun it controlled.

http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_4-45_mk16.htm for some basic info.

I am informed (or misinformed) that it was actually a Mk 16 mounting (they are close kissing cousins and look the same but the one has the coffee cup holder on the right and the other on the left - you know the sort of thing) - but beware the guy who told me is neither a gunner nor was he around when the Jannes and Simon were still in commission.

Some SA Navy ships that carried the 4 inch DP mount.

And this one from the Simonstown Naval Museum, is it the same type

_________________
Brent Best

Yep - the gun was, arguably, one of the most numerous medium calibre weapons ever produced and was in production for a long time. Vickers was still refurbishing them for new build ships in the 1960s, both in twin and single mounts. One of those weapons the experts decry as having too short a barrel for anti-surface work and too long a barrel for anti-aircraft work, but one of the first truly multi-purpose naval guns. It was the major weapon of many classes of ship and the secondary weapon of everything from battleships to light cruisers, via carriers, and saw action from the beginning to the end of WW2.