The concept of "lean manning" in the SA Navy's new frigates placed the onus on a ship's captain to plan how best his crew could be used under various circumstances, and to change the system would require more than a year of recruitment and training, a prominent captain has said.

Captain Bravo Mhlana, the officer commanding the frigate SAS Isandlwana, believes the new frigates have shown the force was performing well despite having had a lot of catching up to do in frigate operations.

Mhlana was reacting to questions yesterday about the results obtained by the Isandlwana's sister ship, SAS Amatola, at the Royal Navy's basic operational sea training (BOST) off Plymouth earlier this year.

Amatola achieved praiseworthy results, but a few flaws showed up mainly because of the SA Navy's acceptance of an internationally popular lean manning, or short-crewed strategy.

The BOST evaluators criticised elements of the Amatola's crewing strategy, especially the requirement that galley staff had to do duty as flight deck crew when helicopters operated from the ship.

This meant the galley could not operate, causing possible interruptions in crew meals if helicopter operations continued at length.

Mhlana said the SA Navy's performance with the training of crew for frigates was highly successful, considering the navy had lost much expertise since the mid-1980s when it last operated such vessels.

But shortly after the BOST results were made known, the chief of the navy, Vice-Admiral Refiloe Mudimu, said it should give up lean manning as it was able to recruit and train enough personnel.

Mhlana said Mudimu would be better equipped to comment on how long it would take to replace the lean-manning system with a full-crew system, but he believed that due to the requirements of proper planning, it would take at least a year to train up more crew.

"As things stand, the Isandlwana is a mighty ship with a well-trained crew capable of performing all the duties demanded of them at any given time," Mhlana said.

"At BOST, Amatola has proved our ability and our training and, with time, of course we will improve.

"As the captain, it is eventually my responsibility to ensure the crew is best deployed according to the needs of the moment and lean manning demands that personnel from some departments support other stations when necessary."

Strike craft commander Glen Hallett said the navy's smaller ships were known to be old and had done in the region of 30 years' service when they were designed to do 10.

"The strike craft provide an excellent platform on which to train crew," he added.

With acknowledgement to Henri du Plessis and Cape Argus.