Recently, there have been more and more scenes of our navy "going out", just when the navy 052D drove through the Baltic Sea to St. Petersburg, Russia, another large ship formation of the navy also crossed the entire India Ocean to Tanzania in East Africa, and will carry out a joint exercise codenamed "Peace and Unity-2024" with the Tanzanian side, and then a series of friendly exchange activities will be carried out.
According to public information, the Chinese navy ships that arrived at the port of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's largest port city, include two large amphibious ships of more than 20,000 tons, the Type 071 Wuzhishan and Qilianshan, and the Type 052D missile destroyer Hefei. In terms of tonnage, the total tonnage of the navy's fleet arriving in Tanzania this time has reached more than 50,000 tons, almost exceeding the sum of all East African countries! It's breathtaking. It is worth noting that as the host of this Sino-Tanzania joint exercise, Tanzania also has a very powerful navy in East Africa, and the weapons and equipment of its navy are also very "familiar" faces.
In everyone's traditional impression, the Tanzanian Army is named after being equipped with a large number of "59 reforms", but in fact, in addition to 59, the Tanzanian Army also "swept" a large number of weapons and equipment in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, such as the BTR series of armored vehicles. In contrast, the proportion of Chinese-made equipment in the Tanzanian Navy is higher, and it can be said that almost all of the heavy weapons and equipment come from the Chinese side.
The total strength of the Tanzanian Navy is about 2,000 people, which is not small in East Africa, including an elite battalion of marines (equipped with 63A amphibious tanks), which is also very rare in East Africa. In terms of equipment, the main equipment of the Tanzanian Navy includes two Type 037 gunboats, two Type 067 amphibious landing craft, two Type 62 gunboats, and four Type 025 torpedo boats. All in all, the total tonnage of the Tanzanian Navy is about 2,000 tons.
At first glance, the Tanzanian navy may seem relatively small in terms of total number and total tonnage, but in fact, with the equipment and size of the country's navy, it can already be called a regional naval power in East Africa, and it can even be said to be the strongest navy in East Africa. In particular, the country also has a Marine Corps with amphibious combat capabilities from sea to land, which is even more daunting for neighboring countries in East Africa.
For example, if we look at Tanzania's southern neighbor Mozambique, which is not much larger than Tanzania, but the strongest ship in the navy is only one Spain Conejera-class patrol boat, a small patrol boat with a length of only 32 meters, and it is not armed. In addition, the Mozambican Navy has only two Namakulla-class port patrol boats, DV 15-class speedboats, HSI 32-class speedboats, etc., which are not only small in tonnage, but often only armed with machine guns. encountered the famous "Yellow Water Battleship" 037, and the ending can be imagined.
Makulla-class port patrol boats
Although Madagascar, which is across the sea from Tanzania, is an island country, it is reasonable to pay great attention to the development of its navy, but the navy can only count one old landing craft and one patrol boat. The Kenya Navy's main force is a hydrographic survey vessel without a main gun; Further north, Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and other countries have almost negligible naval strength.
On the whole, with the strength of the Tanzanian navy, it is not an exaggeration to say that the last sentence is "second to none" in East Africa. The reason why the Tanzanian Navy has been able to build such a relatively powerful navy is actually inseparable from cooperation with China, which can be seen from the fact that the main equipment of the Tanzanian Navy is all "familiar faces". However, these weapons and equipment, including 037, are actually products of the last century, and they are actually relatively old in service. The author believes that now the friendship between China and Tanzania has been strong and new, and Tanzania is located in a key position in East Africa, and there are likely to be pirates in some surrounding waters, so in this case, perhaps the Tanzanian Navy has also come to the time to renew, 052D, 054A These big ships may not be used in Tanzania, but one or two 056 may not be unavoidable, what do you think?