The older generation of military fans and friends must be familiar with the name of the famous Type 037 hunting submarine, although the tonnage of this type of boat is not large, only about 400 tons, but it is equipped with powerful armaments including twin 57 mm naval guns, two Type 61 25 mm twin naval guns, etc. Because of this, this type of boat once had a "Yellow Water Battleship", which was one of the main coastal defense ships of the Navy in the "air and submarine" period, and the total number of ships built even exceeded 100! Although the Type 037 has basically been retired in our navy after many rounds of "dumplings", there are still active figures of this kind of "yellow water battleship" in the navies of friendly countries on some continents, including Tanzania in East Africa.
Recently, the huge ship formation of the Chinese Navy, including two Type 071 and one Type 052D, has officially arrived in Dar es Salaam, the largest port city in Tanzania, and will launch a friendly joint exercise codenamed "Peace and Unity-2024" with Tanzania. Since our navy has dispatched such a large-scale fleet, we have reason to believe that this joint exercise between China and Tanzania is very likely to include joint exercises and interactions between the navies of the two countries. Because of this, the author learned about the specific situation of the Tanzanian Navy, and the result is that the strength of the Tanzanian Navy can be said to be second to none in East Africa, and it also has the strongest amphibious landing combat capability in East Africa!
The Tanzanian Navy was first established in the sixties of the last century, perhaps by virtue of the "old connections" of the former Germany colony, and the Tanzanian Navy first "started" with four West German Navy patrol boats. Subsequently, with the increasing warming of relations between China and Tanzania, a large number of decommissioned equipment from the Chinese side gradually entered the Tanzanian Navy, which made the strength of the Tanzanian Navy grow by leaps and bounds. At present, Tanzania has established a well-equipped and systematic navy, including surface ships, an amphibious fleet, coastal defense forces, and a naval training school. Such a sound naval system is very rare in East Africa.
At present, the total tonnage of the Tanzanian Navy is about 2,000 tons, the number of people is about 2,000 people, and the main equipment includes two 037-IS frigates, which are the new equipment that the Tanzanian Navy has just received in 2015, this 400-ton frigate is known for its powerful firepower is equipped with a powerful Type 76 twin-mounted 37-mm fully automatic naval gun, as well as a twin-mounted 14.5mm machine gun, which is currently the largest and strongest surface combat ship of the Tanzanian Navy.
In addition, the Tanzanian Navy is also equipped with surface combat vessels, including four Type 025 torpedo boats and two Type 062II frigates. And it is particularly worth mentioning that the Tanzanian Navy also has the strongest amphibious combat strength in East Africa, the Tanzanian Marine Corps is equipped with 2 Type 067 landing craft, which is the first self-developed landing craft on the mainland, which can carry 1 main battle tank or 2 armored vehicles, this landing craft has a high "appearance rate" in the Tanzanian Navy, and according to the relevant screens, this landing craft is also "matched" with Type 63 amphibious tanks when exported to Tanzania.
You must know that Tanzania has a total area of about 940,000 square kilometers and a population of more than 60 million. For example, Tanzania's southern neighbor Mozambique covers an area of about 800,000 square kilometers and has a population of more than 33 million, but the navy has only a few very simple patrol boats. Madagascar, the largest island country in Africa, across the sea from Tanzania, has an area of 600,000 square kilometers and a population of more than 30 million, and the country is surrounded by the sea on all sides, with a coastline of more than 5,000 kilometers, but the navy has only more than 500 people, equipped with one patrol boat and one amphibious ship. As for the navies of Kenya, Somalia, Comoros and other countries further north, they are actually very average, and there are hardly too many ships worth mentioning. Overall, it is not an exaggeration to say that Tanzania's navy is the strongest in East Africa.
And it is particularly noteworthy that, unlike the coastal defense of the rest of the East African countries, the Tanzanian Navy has a strong amphibious combat force in addition to a surface ship force of comparable power. Broadly speaking, the Tanzanian Navy's idea of building can be said to revolve around conducting small-scale amphibious landing operations. The 037 can escort amphibious landing ships and provide fire support, and the Type 067 can carry out beach grabbing and then use the 63A assault, which seems very "familiar", and similar scenes have been played out in my exercises in the 70s and 80s of the last century. So we have to ask, why did Tanzania go to such a great lengths to build such a naval force? Why would Tanzania, which is not very prominent in East Africa as a whole "hard power", build one of the strongest navies in East Africa?
In fact, most of the military and national defense construction of various countries are very rigorous, and the reason why Tanzania attaches so much importance to the construction of the navy, especially the naval amphibious force, is mainly because of the demand in this regard, and this "demand" actually comes from Zanzibar.
Flags of Tanzania and Zanzibar
The full name of Tanzania is "United Republic of Tanzania", and the word "union" here means that the country is actually "united" by Tanganyika and Zanzibar. Tanganyika is the part of Tanzania on the African mainland, and Sanibar is the island part of the India Ocean east of Tanganyika. Although Zanzibar covers an area of just over 2,600 square kilometres and has a population of just over 1.6 million, the degree of autonomy is very high. Zanzibar not only has its own parliament, flag, emblem, etc., but also has its own foreign affairs department, which has a certain authority for foreign exchanges. Compared to the Soviet Union, Zanzibar is much more self-reliant.
The reason for this situation in Tanzania is mainly related to the fact that Tanganyika and Zanzibar do not fully correspond to the historical context. Historically, Tanganyika, located on the African mainland, has been a traditional tribal agricultural region in Africa, while Zanzibar has established a commercial city-state early on the island. In 1856, Zanzibar officially established the Sultanate of Zanzibar. In modern times, Tanganyika and Zanzibar were occupied by Germany and United Kingdom respectively, and were both United Kingdom colonies until the end of World War I. In order to fight together against the United Kingdom, the two places slowly came together.
In recent years, Tanganyika has focused on developing relations with East African countries, while Zanzibar has shown a posture of crossing the ocean to return to the Arab world, and there is a vague trajectory of detachment from African geography. So in this case, the reason for Tanzania's creation of a strong navy and strong amphibious forces is obvious, that is, to "land on the island" when "there is a need"!
However, Tanzania, which has some ambitions, does not seem to be fully satisfied with the status quo of a navy that only builds a smaller amphibious force and an offshore defense fleet in recent years. In recent years, according to public information, Tanzania has sent naval cadets to the mainland to communicate with our submarine academy, and perhaps in the near future, the Tanzanian navy will usher in more "new faces."