₦airaland Forum

Tribute to the South African Navy

Lions of the South of Africa

Amongst the best in Africa

Tribute to our brothers in the SANDF

Tribute to the pride of the nation SANDF

South AFRICAN PRODUCED MILITARY HARDWARE

tribute to the south african national defence force

My tribute to South African Special forces

My tribute to the South African Army

my tribute to the south african navy

M y Tribute to the South African Navy

See also South African Navy

South African Marine Corps

South African Marine Corps

South African Marine Corps

South African Marine Corps

Professional army in training , South African National Defence Force

South African soldiers in training

Happy South African soldiers

South African Army in peacekeeping operations in the DR Congo, Sudan-Darfur, Burundi

South African produced military hardwares

South African produced missiles for airforce and are markerted internationally

Here is a brief about the South African National Defence Force to those who may not know it and to those with distorted views here are the facts:
History of the South African Special Forces:
The South Africa Special Forces are known as the Recces and are the main special forces branch of the defense force for South Africa.

Their History

The South African Special Forces Brigade, as they are also known, were created on 1st October1972 as a reconnaissance commando team. They now consist of several regiments and are headquartered in Seskop, Pretoria Gauteng. They have been restructured several times through the years and now consist of several brigade sized forces.

How To Become A Member Of The Recces

All members of the Recces must be soldiers as well as South African Citizens to apply for this special forces unit which is considered to be one of the most challenging in the world. There is pre-selection training, as well as other courses for those who make this first cut. Candidates must be part of the military and must meet very stringent requirements in order to be considered for pre-selection training.

Recces Training

Pre-selection training consists of psychological and physical tests as well as oral examinations. There are strenuous physical tests of endurance that must be performed. These include a 3 km run in full gear to be completed in 13 minutes; 67 sit ups to be done in 2 minutes, rope climbing, wall scaling and 40 non-stop push ups. In addition, each cadet has to perform 120 shuttle kicks, climb a wall that is 10 ft high and complete a 15 kms march within 2 hours.

They must demonstrate maturity as well as physical qualifications before they can continue to the parachuting course and then to the orientation course.

The psychological tests include oral interviews with Special Forces NCOs in addition to written tests. Even a hint of mental instability can lead to instant exclusion from the army training.

After they have completed the Orientation course, all soldiers must then go through intensive land, sea and airborne training.

Land training includes tracking and survival, reconnaissance and demolitions and sniping.

Sea training includes swimming, navigation, diving, underwater demolitions and beach reconnaissance.

Advanced airborne training includes rappelling and free falling.

What Are They Best At?

They are best at reconnaissance, sabotage, underwater demolition and counter terrorism.

Weapons Of The Recces

A full range of military weapons are used by this special forces brigade similar to those used by the SAS and Navy Seals.

Known Missions

The South African Recces were active in Angola as well as Namibia during the 70s and the 80s, during which time their main adversary was the South West Africa’s People Organization ( SWAPO). The SWAPO was comprised of a group of guerillas fighting for an independent Namibia.

“Operation Mebos”, carried out in 1982 was one of their most well known operations. During this operation, the Recces stormed and destroyed the SWAPO headquarters, which was located deep into Angola. Later, in 1984, they carried out “Operation Askari”. In this operation, they severed all supply lines to and from SWAPO.

Units

There are several units consisting of the 1 Reconnaissance Commando, the 4 Reconnaissance Commando, the 5 Reconnaissance Commando and the 7th Medical Battalion.

Are They Professional Soldiers?

The members of this special forces elite team are professional soldiers, most of whom remain with the special forces until retirement.

What it was all about:
A Small Team, (2 Operators), or a Team, (12 Operators), would do this. In such an operation, a Reconnaissance Mission would be undertaken on an enemy strategic position – on a military position or a military complex in a (for example, in Angola).


Firstly, one would have to infiltrate. This would entail walking to the target area -

In enemy territory all the way.
In a war situation, with enemy soldiers and forces (very good and highly trained ones) all along the route - constantly searching for us.
With potentially hostile local population all over the place, who would instantly inform the enemy soldiers if we were detected.
With the enemy having complete air superiority, and having helicopter and helicopter gunship patrols frequently.
With no possibility of any support, resupply or evacuation by ground or air.
Carrying all food, water, sleeping equipment, military equipment, and ammunition - of a quantity that could last for weeks.
Meaning that the weight of one's rucksack - excluding webbing and weapon/s - would be 60kg to 80kg - or in some cases 100kg. (As an educational exercise, just try to walk normally - or lift - a rucksack weighing 80 kg).
Walking in over 300km to 400km or more - inside enemy territory.


Infiltration would be long and arduous, moving mostly at night, conducting anti-tracking, lying up in hides in the day, avoiding all enemy forces and local population - all the while carrying this killing weight, navigating accurately through the bush or through mountains, crossing crocodile-infested, deep and fast-flowing rivers (not by bridge), coming across lions and other dangerous animals, eating and drinking hardly anything to conserve rations, tolerating all weather conditions from freezing to frying and from tropical rain to no water at all, never speaking, never cooking, never making noise, always doing anti-tracking, always alert - all the while aware that if you were compromised, you were on your own, and however far you were in - so far you would have to get out - without any help, and with the full and mighty force of the enemy hunting you.



At the target area, one would have to get into a hide right at the enemy position - which could be a base harbouring thousands of enemy soldier. “Right at” the enemy position meaning right in direct sight of the base with the naked eye. One may also have to move around to various hides at various points around the enemy base, all the time making maps, notes, records, assessments, etc. On various occasions, the reconnaissance would entail penetrating right inside the actual enemy base to conduct reconnaissance.



Once enough information had been obtained, one would have to exfiltrate - all the way back - on foot, with all the obstacles and challenges that one had faced on the infiltration. The only difference would be that one may be running low on water and food - and could not -without extreme danger of being compromised - take food from fields or go to rivers / waterholes for water, as these are they are routinely busy or watched.



If one was compromised on the infiltration or exfiltration, the enemy would deploy hundreds or thousands of men between the contact point and the border - by plane, by helicopter, by vehicle, on foot from their forward bases. They would form huge interdiction lines cutting off direct escape routes, and would conduct hundreds of patrols, and have standing ambushes all over the place. Their aircraft and helicopters would fly all over the area - searching. Also, they would get onto your tracks - and chase you - running you down with teams and teams of fresh men, changing when they got tired so that they were always fresh while you got tired. Trying to force you into their ambushes in front of you, with stopper groups deployed at the sides to prevent you from escaping to the side.



One would have to survive such a situation, applying Escape and Evasion techniques - sometimes over hundreds of kilometres - running, lying up & hiding, passing stealthily through enemy positions, or staying in cover while they walked right over you, or entering into contact (a firefight) with enemy forces - never stopping, never sleeping, and never giving up.


If one of your colleagues was killed or wounded, you would carry him out with you. If you were all wounded, those who could still walk would carry those who could not.



If and when you managed to escape and get back over the border, you would rest up for a short period, and start all over again with another operation, time and time again, year in and year out.



This is what a Special Forces Reconnaissance operation entails. There are many and various other examples of reconnaissance tasks that are even more arduous than this example - which is a relatively standard example.

NOW ABOUT THE DEFENCE FORCE:

New and experimental technology is at the core of a multimillion-rand military exercise which is testing the state of readiness of the country’s defence force.

With thousands of South African soldiers, sailors, pilots and paratroopers taking part in the R20 million exercise, which has been three years in the planning, the country’s commander-in-chief, President Jacob Zuma, will know within weeks whether the defence can respond to a threat to South Africa’s sovereignty.

From across the country 4 000 defence force personnel, including mechanised infantry, airborne and maritime forces, tactical intelligence troops and special forces operatives have been gathering for Exercise Indlovu, which will culminate in a mock battle for the defence of Kimberley.

The Northern Cape and South Africa’s West Coast are the battlegrounds for the exercise.

With the maritime section of the exercise, involving the navy’s reaction force along with submariners and sailors, nearing completion, the army is now preparing for its role.

The exercise is simulating an attack by a foreign force on the mineral-rich city of Kimberley.

The exercise will, in the next 10 days, see vicious land battles playing themselves out at the SANDF’s combat training centre in Lohatla as paratroopers and ground forces respond to the attacks.

While the main battles will take place in the Northern Cape, it is in specially located military headquarters in Bloemfontein that the defence force’s new state-of-the-art and experimental command and control technology will be put to the test.

It is hoped that these command-and-control tests will reveal potential problems which could occur in real life situations.

Exercise co-ordinator Brigadier General Koos Liebenberg, speaking from aboard the SAS Drakensberg, one of the navy ships used in the maritime exercise, said all indications were that failing a political or diplomatic solution, the SANDF could respond to such a threat within two weeks.

“We have forces on standby all day every day. Something like this would not catch us by surprise because we know about any military build-up through our intelligence sources on the ground, media reports and other sources of information.

“When a threat like this is detected these standby forces are immediately activated and mobilised while diplomatic and political solutions are being sought.

“Exercises like this, which have been three years in the planning, are vital to ensuring that we know what to do when we need to do it and that we can carry out our tasks flawlessly,” he said.

Liebenberg said while the troops on the ground formed an important part of the exercise, the main focus was on the capabilities of command and control structures.

“A big effort has been placed on establishing a rhythm around headquarter capabilities.

“It is here that any gaps in command and control structures will be exposed and remedied,” he said.

Speaking about the new and experimental technology systems being tested, Liebenberg said they were aimed at improving communication systems between the battlefield and military headquarters.

“For battles to be won a number of critical requirements have to be met by these systems.

“These include communications systems which give us operational reports and minute-to-minute situational awareness maps which provide us with ‘full-time pictures’ of battles in our operation rooms.

“This exercise has been made as difficult as possible, with every possible scenario being thrown in to confuse, frustrate and force those in command and control to think as quickly and logically as possible,” he said.

“Ultimately R20 million is not a lot of money especially if it means that we can effectively defend the country’s sovereignty.

“The backbone for any defence is conventional warfare training. If we can establish this backbone we will with ease be able to switch over to non-conventional and asymmetrical warfare scenarios and situations such as these and others including peacekeeping and humanitarian missions.”