On 22 September, the German Navy commissioned its second Braunschweig (Type 130) class corvette, the Magdeburg. Laid down in May 2005, the 1,690-ton (full load) warship was built by L rssen shipbuilders at Vegesack, Germany. Launched in September 2006, the new corvette and her sisters carry RBS-15 antiship missiles, rolling airframe (RAM) surface-to-air missiles, and a 76-mm gun. The ships have two small aircraft hangers that will eventually house drone surveillance helicopters. The flight deck aft is ample for a warship of this size, however, and is capable of supporting a Lynx or NH-90 helicopter. The Magdeburg joined older sister Braunschweig in service and the German fleet now looks to deliveries of the three more Type 130 corvettes—Erfurt, Oldenburg, and Ludwigshafen—that are to follow by the end of the decade. Additional warships of the class may be ordered in the future.
This fall Pakistan's newest submarine, the Hamza, was commissioned. The sub is the third Agosta-90B class boat to enter service with the Pakistani fleet. Displacing some 1,570 tons surfaced and 1,760 tons submerged, the French designed, indigenously produced Hamza has been fitted with the air-independent propulsion (AIP) system known as MEMSA (Module d'Energie Sous-Marine Autonome). Two earlier boats of the class, Khalid and Saad, are to be retrofitted in the near future with the same AIP system under a 2007 contract. Agosta-90B submarines began entering Pakistani service in 1999 and serve alongside two older French Agosta-class boats, Hashmat and Hurmat (pictured here in March), commissioned in 1979 and 1980 respectively. Additional submarine orders are expected from Pakistan as the nuclear-armed nation looks to replace its four Daphné-class submarines, the last of which was decommissioned in 2006.
In September, the Spioenkop, a South African Valour-class frigate, departed for an Asian tour that marks the longest deployment ever undertaken by a frigate of this class. Included on the list of port visits on the trip were Singapore, Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh City, Kota Kinabalu, Cochin, and Port Louis, Mauritius. The warship is scheduled to return home to Simon's Town, South Africa, by mid-December. Spioenkop is the third of four frigates designed and built in Germany to the MEKO A-200SAN design. Laid down in 2002 and launched the following year, the Spioenkop and her sisters are armed with Exocet antiship missiles, Umkhonto surface-to-air missiles, a 76-mm gun, and several smaller caliber weapons. The warships generally carry a crew of around 115 and are fitted with a hanger that is able to carry two small helicopters.