SA Navy arrives in La Reunion

Oct 31, 2006
Author: P&S

Three ships of the South African Navy, the hydrographic survey vessel SAS Protea and two strike craft SAS Isaac Dyobha and SAS Galashewe have arrived in La Reunion to take part in joint exercises with ships of the French Navy. The joint exercise is dubbed Exercise Bourbon.

The three ships of the task force took a week to make the crossing from Mombasa in Kenya, where they had completed a three port East African visit.

The ships went alongside in the port aptly named Le Port which is also the base for the French Navy Indian Ocean fleet. France maintains a fleet of seven patrol ships here, of which some will take part in the joint exercises.

French possessions in the Indian Ocean, consisting of islands in the Mozambique Channel and in the southern Indian Ocean such as Kerguelen and St Paul, provide the French Navy with a vast patrol territory of some 6.5 million square kilometres.