Editing Valour-class frigate (section)

=== Construction ===
Construction began on the Valour class when the first steel was cut on 6 August 2001 for {{ship|SAS|Amatola}} at the [[Blohm+Voss]] shipyards in [[Hamburg]], Germany. {{ship|SAS|Spioenkop}} was also assembled here. {{ship|SAS|Isandlwana}} and {{ship|SAS|Mendi}} were constructed separately at the Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft shipyards in [[Kiel]]. All four frigates were first laid down between August 2001 and June 2002, launched by October 2003 and later delivered to South Africa by the end of 2004. The delivery programme was delayed by up to nine months after the discovery of defects in installed electrical cabling in the [[lead ship]] SAS ''Amatola''. Further delays were not incurred to the programme as the electrical cabling at fault had not yet been fitted to the subsequent frigates. The majority of the combat suite, weapons and sensors were designed and built by South African companies, with the integration process taking between 2–3 years per ship in South Africa. Final commissioning into service was achieved by 2007 for all four vessels.