At 10 a.m. on February 18th, the South African submarine "S 101" left ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems' shipyard Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) in Kiel. Together with the South African escort vessel "SAS Drakensberg", the state-of-the-art submarine Class 209/1400 mod will first travel to Norway, where Commander Gary Kretschmer and his crew will perform a final joint training exercise with the German Navy. On February 24th, the transfer to South Africa will begin, where the vessels are expected to arrive in Simon's Town, a South African naval base, on April 7th.

"S 101" is the first of three submarines which South Africa ordered in the year 2000 from the German Submarine Consortium. The consortium consists of Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft, Nordseewerke Emden and MAN Ferrostaal Essen. The submarine was delivered on September 20th, 2005 and was ceremoniously commissioned on November 3rd by the South African Navy at HDW in Kiel.

The vessel has a displacement of 1,450 tons and is 62 meters long. It has a crew complement of 30 men and a diesel-electric propulsion system.