Keel laid for Belgian Navy's fourth City-class mine countermeasures ship
A shipyard in Romania has laid the keel of the future Liege, the fourth of a planned City-class mine countermeasures (MCM) vessels slated for the Belgian Navy.
Upon completion of the vessel's hull, it will be transported to France where it will undergo final outfitting at the facilities of defence shipbuilder the Naval Group.
French naval shipbuilding joint venture Kership is in charge of the production of the six City-class MCMs as well as six other vessels of similar configuration to be operated by the Royal Netherlands Navy. The Naval Group, as overall architect and prime contractor, is responsible for the design of the ships, the overall integration, and the testing and commissioning of the mission system, which includes the combat system and the mine countermeasures system.
The future Liege will have a length of 82.6 metres, a beam of 17 metres, a displacement of 2,800 tonnes, a crew complement of 63, a maximum speed of 15.3 knots, and a range of over 3,500 nautical miles.
The ship will be able to launch and recover autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) fitted with sonars; towed sonars; unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs); 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 (ROVs) equipped with mine identification/destruction systems.
The MCM vessel 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.
