History
For most of 1980s and 1990s, the South African Navy had no operational ships in this class. The purchase of SAS Good Hope from France was stopped at the last minute in 1977 by United Nations Security Council Resolution 418; one of its three "Type 12" (Rothesay-class) anti-submarine warfare (ASW) frigates, the SAS President Kruger, was lost in an accident in 1982, while the last, the SAS President Pretorius (F145), was decommissioned in 1986 due to obsolescence.
Project Sitron was part of the Strategic Defence Package (commonly known as the arms deal) signed on December 3, 1999 with the European South African Corvette Consortium (ESACC). The contracts became effective on April 28, 2000. The Amatola arrived in South African waters in November 2004, the Isandhlwana in February 2005, the Spioenkop in May and the Mendi in September 2005.
These frigates were built by the Blohm + Voss shipyards in Germany, two in Hamburg, and the other two in Kiel.
Read more about this topic: Valour Class Frigate
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