Kongsberg equipment for South African Navy

Kongsberg Maritime, through its partner Unique Group, has been selected to deliver an integrated hydroacoustic and bridge system technology package for the South African Navy’s new survey vessel.

The hydrographic survey vessel is being built by Southern African Shipyards in Durban. Due for delivery in 2022, the new 95m long and 17.5m wide ship will replace the SAS Protea, which has been in service since 1972.

Being built to a VARD Canada ice-strengthened design, the vessel will have a maximum speed of 18kt, 10,000 nautical mile range and 44 day endurance that will enable the navy to perform high quality mapping surveys throughout the southern hemisphere.

Kongsberg will deliver a survey package including the EM 304 deep water multibeam echo sounder, EM 2040 shallow water multibeam echo sounder, TOPAS PS 40 parametric sub-bottom profiler, EA640 single beam echo sounder, K-Sync synchronisation system, MDM 500 marine data management system and Seapath 380-R3 combined GNSS and inertial navigation system.

The vessel will also feature the K-Bridge integrated navigation system and K-Pos dynamic positioning to ensure safe and efficient navigation and manoeuvring.

For three survey motor boats, Kongsberg will deliver hydroacoustic equipment including EM 2040 shallow water multibeam echo sounder, EA440 single beam echo sounder and Seapath 130-R3 combined GNSS and inertial navigation system.