Sea trials begin for future Royal Netherlands Navy minehunter

French shipbuilder the Naval Group has begun conducting sea trials of a new mine countermeasures (MCM) ship ordered by the Royal Netherlands Navy as part of a joint project with the Belgian Navy.

The future HNLMS Vlissingen is the second MCM vessel overall to be built under the Belgium-led replacement mine countermeasures (rMCM) program as well as the first in the class to be built for the Netherlands.

Twelve ships are being built under the rMCM program with the Belgian and Royal Netherlands Navies receiving six vessels each. For the Belgian Navy, the lead ship is Oostende, named after the Flemish coastal city, and all six ships for Belgium will be known as the City-class.

French joint venture Kership is in charge of the production of the twelve platforms, which are assembled in Concarneau and Lanester. 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 ships, the overall integration, and the testing and commissioning of the mission system, which includes the combat system and the mine countermeasures system.

Like its sisters, the future Vlissingen will have an LOA of 82 metres, a displacement of approximately 2,800 tonnes, a maximum speed of 15.3 knots, and a range of over 3,500 nautical miles.