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It is official: Damen Naval will build the new Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Frigates for the Dutch and Belgian navies. On the first day of Sail Den Helder, the Dutch Ministry of Defence, Damen and Thales signed the contract for the design, construction and delivery of four frigates; two are destined for the Netherlands and two for Belgium. The agreement was ratified on the bridge of HNLMS Karel Doorman by State Secretary of Defence Christophe van der Maat, Damen Shipyards Group CEO Arnout Damen, Damen Naval Managing Director Roland Briene and Thales Netherlands CEO Gerben Edelijn.
Damen Naval Managing Director Roland Briene, Damen Shipyards Group CEO Arnout Damen, Dutch State Secretary of Defence Christophe van der Maat and Thales Netherlands CEO Gerben Edelijn signed the contract on the bridge of HNLMS Karel Doorman.
The ASW frigates are the replacements for the current Karel Doorman-class multipurpose frigates. They are deployable for multiple tasks; however, the emphasis will be on anti-submarine warfare. The ships will have hybrid diesel-electric propulsion and will be designed to sail as quietly as possible to avoid detection by submarines as much as possible. On board will be a comprehensive suite of sensors to detect submarines.
“This is a wonderful project and a special new chapter for our Damen Naval division,” said Damen Shipyards Group CEO Arnout Damen. “We are proud to be building these beautiful frigates and look forward to working with the many, mostly Dutch, partners and suppliers on this project. With these launching customer projects, we retain vital knowledge at home and thus our place in the world’s top tier of complex naval construction. More importantly, the crews of the Dutch and Belgian navies get state-of-the-art ships to carry out their challenging tasks.”
“One of our objectives is that we want to share the enormous accumulation of knowledge we gain from this kind of high-value launching customer project with as many Dutch suppliers as possible.” Roland Briene
A team from Damen Naval has been working on the preparations, initial designs, and bids for the project for more than two years and Project Director Joop Noordijk is pleased that all that hard work has now led to a signed contract. “After more than three years of preparations, it is great that we can now really start officially. The first period will mainly revolve around scaling up our team, but we will of course also continue with the engineering phase. After the construction of the Johan de Witt, Karel Doorman and Nuyina, this is my fourth major project, and I am really looking forward to it. We are going to build four beautiful and state-of-the-art frigates.”
Meanwhile, an initial supplier has also already been contracted: RH Marine will supply the Integrated Mission Management System (IMMS), the Integrated Navigation Bridge System (INBS) and the Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS) for each of the four frigates. This contract signing took place in the Willem Ruys Room at Damen Naval Headquarters in Vlissingen.
The frigates will be 145 metres long and 18 metres wide. They will have a draft of 5.5 metres with a displacement of 6,400 tonnes.
“One of our objectives is that we want to share the enormous accumulation of knowledge we gain from this kind of high-value launching customer project with as many Dutch suppliers as possible,” explains Roland Briene. “This contract with RH Marine is an excellent example of that. We have been working closely together for many years and once again I am looking forward to a great project with a wonderful end result.”
The frigates will be 145 metres long and 18 metres wide. They will have a draft of 5.5 metres with a displacement of 6,400 tonnes. On board, there is room for a 115-strong crew and capacity for additional crews. Among other things, the ASW frigates will be equipped with an Under Water Warfare Suite (UWWS), an Above Water Warfare System (AWWS) and underwater decoys. The ships will be armed with a 76mm gun, Mk54 torpedoes, Rolling Airframe Missiles (RAM) and the Naval Strike Missile. The ship will be prepared for other weapons, such as more powerful missiles and High Energy Lasers. There are also unmanned craft and aircraft on board for use on and under water and in the air.
RH Marine Managing Director Hugo Loudon (left) and Roland Briene shake hands after signing the first supplier contract for ASWF.
The entire project is being carried out in close cooperation with the Dutch Ministry of Defence, with some of the work to be carried out by the Ministry itself. Arnout Damen: “We have had the knowledge, skill and technology to coordinate and execute the design and construction of complex naval vessels for almost 150 years. This is done not only in the Netherlands, but also at our yard in Romania, where the hulls will partly be built.” Subsequently, these hulls will come to Vlissingen for further completion, installation and integration of weapon systems and, ultimately, preparation of the frigates for deployment in the Belgian and Dutch navies.
The current Multipurpose frigates of the Karel Doorman-class were built in 1985 by Damen Naval (then called Koninklijke Maatschappij de Schelde). Between 1991 and 1995, eight M-class frigates were delivered, of which six were eventually sold to other countries, including two to Belgium. With the end of the service life of these ships in sight, the Netherlands and Belgium decided to jointly replace the ships with these ASW frigates. The first ship is expected to be delivered by Damen Naval in 2028.