French navy ship docks in S. Africa following anti-piracy action Special

Durban - A French amphibious dock ship or LHD, the FS Tonnerre, has docked in Durban Naval Station on South Africa’s east coast. The vessel is on a training mission and has recently seen action against pirates.

A South African Navy spokesman said the Tonnerre arrived from Mombasa, Kenya, at Durban Naval Station on Friday. Warrant Officer 1 Manny Gounden, Public Relations Officer for the station, told Digital Journal the exercise was dubbed ”Jeanne d’arc,” Speaking in a telephone interview, he said:

It’s an informal visit to strengthen bonds of friendship with the South African Navy. Also it’s a training cruise. They have what we call “aspirants,” or midshipmen on board.

Defenceweb reported there were 88 of the midshipmen from the French Naval Academy, 11 soon-to-be commissioned supply officers, five maritime affairs members and officers from African countries including Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Gabon, Madagascar, Morocco, Senegal and Togo. Other officers are from Belgium, Canada and Germany. South Africa and France have bilateral co-operation agreements in the areas of defence, sea rescue and information sharing in the context of which South African naval forces are expected to take part in an upcoming field training exercise with French forces off the Indian Ocean island of La Réunion. The island is a French possession. The possibility has been raised that South Africa might buy an LHD as a “strategic support ship” under Project Millennium, but the obvious difficulty is funding. These ships are a modern, very versatile type of warship and caused consternation when France agreed to sell Russia ships of this type. The LHD’s are France’s second largest ships after the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. The Tonnerre can carry 16 helicopters, 450 soldiers and 40 tanks or other armoured fighting vehicles. The Tonnerre’s training cruise was not without incident. On May 1, it was involved in a successful anti-piracy action. About 450 nautical miles off the Somali coast the ship was ordered by the EU NAVFOR commander, Rear Admiral Jan Thörnqvist to interdict a pirate vessel after it was located by a patrol aircraft.

EU Navfor

A boarding party from the FS Tonnerre (French for 'Thunder'.)

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The suspected pirates began ditching weapons and threw a ladder overboard, but the helicopter crew recorded this. The French sailors boarded the ship, secured evidence and the 11 suspected pirates were taken aboard. The mother ship was destroyed and two skiffs taken onto the FS Tonnerre. The Tonnerre is scheduled to sail to Réunion Wednesday where she will meet up with the guided missile destroyer FS Georges Leygues.