The South African Navy's acquisition of four new ThyssenKrupp frigates has allowed South African manufacturers to benefit from supply and maintenance contracts worth R860-million, through the Defence Industrial Participation (Dip) programme.

The State arms acquisition agency, Armscor, said on Thursday that the Dip programme on the Navy's frigate platforms had now been completed. The offset related only to the platforms and not the combat systems, which were installed in South Africa with high local content.

Companies benefiting from Dip contracts for the naval vessels are DCD Dorbyl, Bennett's Engineering, Titanium Industries, Booyco Engineering, Siemens Cape Town, and MTU Cape Town.

These companies supplied significant elements of the frigates' electrical, diesel, high-tech exhaust and integrated platform management systems, superstructures and mast modules, refrigeration and ventilation plants, gearboxes and hydraulic power units.

Skills and technology transfer were also essential in the programme, to ensure that the frigates and their key systems could be maintained in South Africa by South Africans, thereby securing relevant shipbuilding skills and engineering skills more broadly for the country.

The companies involved have also won additional business valued at almost R49-million as a result of the quality of their work on the South African frigates.

The Dip programme, under the strategic defence acquisition programme, required defence manufacturers supplying South Africa to source components and systems from local manufacturers, assemble essential elements locally, and transfer skills and technologies to local partners, as a way of assisting local manufacturers to integrate into the global economy.

Armscor is responsible for monitoring Dip performance, and the Department of Trade and Industry monitors the separate civilian component of the programme known as National Industrial Participation.

The South African Navy has taken four Valour-class MEKO A-200-SAN frigates into full service, following the commissioning of the fourth ship, the SAS Mendi, in Port Elizabeth in March this year.