The defence ministries of the Netherlands, Belgium and Bulgaria have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) regarding the transfer of decommissioned Dutch and Belgian mine countermeasures (MCM) vessels to the Bulgarian Navy.
The Belgian Ministry of Defence had earlier said that the transfer will be undertaken free of charge and will cover four ex-Belgian Navy MCM vessels and another three formerly operated by the Royal Netherlands Navy.
The Belgian and Dutch MCM vessels all belong to the Tripartite-class of MCM vessels that first entered service in the 1980s. France was the only other initial operator of the Tripartite-class ships, examples of which were also later handed over to the navies of Indonesia, Pakistan, Latvia and Ukraine.
The Belgian and Dutch Tripartite-class ships are slated for replacement by the 12 vessels under the joint Belgian-Dutch rMCM program. The first ship to be completed under the program is the Belgian Navy's Oostende, which formally entered service earlier this year.
The Tripartite-class ships turned over to Bulgaria will again be used in the MCM role, particularly in the Black Sea where mines continue to pose a threat to commercial shipping.
