The South African Navy has awarded a multi-million dollar contract to Aerospatiale Matra and EADS to buy Exocet missiles to place the sea-skimming anti-ship missile on its new corvettes.

Contract negotiation has been ongoing for about a year. Missile deliveries and launcher installations will take place between 2002 and 2004. Integrating the firing units on the four Meko A-200 ships will be undertaken in South Africa by the country's African Defense Systems company.

As part of the deal, Aerospatiale Matra Missiles and EADS have offered a large offset package. The partners will be the Kentron missile house and Somchen missile propulsion company.

This is the first Exocet sale this year, with other deals being negotiated. South Africa is buying the latest Block 2 version of the MM40 Exocet. The country has thus become the 33rd client for Exocet, with 3,200 missiles sold to date.

By Robert Wall