The Belgian Navy christened its newest mine countermeasures (MCM) vessel in a ceremony on Wednesday, June 24.
Oostende is the first ship in a class of 12 vessels to be built under the joint Belgian-Dutch rMCM program. The Belgian and Royal Netherlands Navies will receive six vessels each, and all six ships for Belgium will be known as the City-class.
Kership, the joint ventured formed by French shipbuilders Piriou and the Naval Group, is in charge of the production of the 12 platforms. They will be then all armed afloat by Piriou in Concarneau.
The Naval Group, as overall architect and prime contractor, is responsible for the design of the rMCM ships, the overall integration, and the testing and commissioning of the mission system, which include the combat system and the MCM system.
Oostende is capable of launching and recovering autonomous underwater vehicles fitted with sonars; towed sonars; unmanned aerial vehicles; and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) of up to 12 metres and 19 tonnes each. The USVs themselves will be able to launch and recover remotely operated vehicles equipped with mine identification/destruction systems.
Oostende will use a fully robotised system to detect, classify, identify and neutralise mines. The ship can withstand underwater explosions and also boasts significantly low acoustic, electrical and magnetic signatures, in line with the missions to be carried out.