SAS ''Isandlwana'' (F146) is the second of four s for the South African Navy built by the European South African Corvette Consortium. SAS ''Isandlwana'' was named after the

Battle of Isandlwana The Battle of Isandlwana (alternative spelling: Isandhlwana) on 22 January 1879 was the first major encounter in the Anglo-Zulu War between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Eleven days after the British commenced their invasion of Zulu ...

at a ceremony held in Kiel in December 2002, by Deputy Defence Minister

Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge Nozizwe Charlotte Madlala-Routledge (born 29 June 1952) is a South African politician who was South Africa's Deputy Minister of Defence from 1999 to April 2004 and Deputy Minister of Health from April 2004 to August 2007. President Thabo Mbeki ...

Construction

SAS ''Isandlwana'' was manufactured by the European South African Corvette Consortium (ESACC), consisting of the German Frigate Consortium (Blohm+Voss, Thyssen Rheinstahl and Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft), African Defence Systems (part of the French

Thales Thales of Miletus ( ; grc-gre, Θαλῆς; ) was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regard ...

defense group) and a number of South African companies. The ships were built to the

MEKO The MEKO family of warships was developed by the German company Blohm+Voss. MEKO is a registered trademark. The portmanteau stands for "''Mehrzweck-Kombination''" (English: multi-purpose-combination). It is a concept in modern naval shipbuilding ...

modular design concept and are designated by the manufacturer as the MEKO A-200SAN class. Some controversy exists as to the class type of the vessel, with both the manufacturer and the South African Navy referring to her as a " corvette," but other similar vessels in other navies being referred to as

frigates A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

. Some have claimed the use of the word "corvette" was a political decision made by the South African government to ease criticism of the procurement of the vessels. SAS ''Isandlwana'' was built at the Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft shipyards in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland pe ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

, and she arrived in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

on 25 February 2004. In 2007, SAS ''Isandlwana'' took part in the Atlasur Exercise in cooperation with the fleets of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

Namesake

As with all the other ships of the Valour class, ''Isandlwana'' is named after a famous South African battle or instance of great valour. In this case the famous

between the Zulu nation and the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading post ...

, at the beginning of the

Anglo-Zulu War The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Following the passing of the British North America Act of 1867 forming a federation in Canada, Lord Carnarvon thought that a similar political effort, coup ...

Notable deployments

*Exercise Atlasur VI *Expo Naval in

*Exercise Amazolo *Exercise Red Lion *Exercise Good Hope III *Exercise Ibsamar I *Exercise Atlasur VII

References

External links

Valour class specifications

{{DEFAULTSORT:Isandlwana Valour-class frigates Ships built in Kiel 2002 ships Frigates of the South African Navy Military units and formations in Cape Town