The Enforcer is a ship design created by Royal Schelde (now Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding) following the design and building of HNLMS ''Rotterdam''. HNLMS ''Rotterdam'' was jointly developed by the

Royal Netherlands Navy The Royal Netherlands Navy (, ) is the Navy, maritime service branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. It traces its history to 8 January 1488, making it the List of navies, third-oldest navy in the world. During the 17th and early 18th centurie ...

and the

Spanish Navy The Spanish Navy, officially the Armada, is the Navy, maritime branch of the Spanish Armed Forces and one of the oldest active naval forces in the world. The Spanish Navy was responsible for a number of major historic achievements in navigation ...

. Development began in the 1980s, when the Royal Netherlands Navy began investigating ways to provide an amphibious transport capability. In 1994, preliminary design work began. The Spanish government proposed in 1990 to collaborate on the design. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in June 1992. Development of the base design occurred during 1993, after which the navies turned to local companies for further design work and construction: Royal Schelde in the Netherlands, and Bazán (which became

Navantia Navantia is a Spanish state-owned shipbuilding enterprise dedicated to civil and military naval construction, the design of deep-tech systems and the manufacture of structures for the renewable energy sector, such as offshore wind or hydrogen. ...

in 2005) in Spain. Royal Schelde completed one ship to the ''Rotterdam'' class, with constructed between 1995 and 1998. Bazan/Navantia completed two ships to the ''Galicia''-class design. After building ''Rotterdam'', Royal Schelde developed the "Enforcer Family": four variants of the Enforcer design intended for export sale. Increased modularity, less powerful propulsion systems, and allowed the company to offer the export variants at lower prices. The Enforcer design also served as the basis of a second ship for the Royal Netherlands Navy; , which was laid down in 2003 and commissioned in 2007. The design was used for the British Bay-class landing ships. Four vessels were built for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary by two shipyards between 2002 and 2007, with one sold in 2011 to the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the navy, naval branch of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (Australia), Chief of Navy (CN) Vice admiral (Australia), Vice Admiral Mark Hammond (admiral), Ma ...

. The Enforcer design was considered a contender for the Indian Navy Multi-Role Support Vessel programme.

Enforcer redesign

In 2023 Damen released its updated portfolio of Enforcer

Landing Platform Dock An amphibious transport dock, also called a landing platform dock (LPD), is an amphibious warfare ship, a warship that embarks, transports, and lands elements of a landing force for expeditionary warfare missions. Several navies currently operat ...

(LPD). This update saw a significant redesign to facilitate new equipment, material upgrades, improved internal logistics and greater levels of design 'flexibility'. The new portfolio consists of seven sibling designs that range in size and by extension the size of internal facilities / capacity (embarked military force, crew size, aviation spots, hangar capacity etc.). The largest design (Enforcer 18028) is 180 metres in length and capable of embarking a force of 590-790 personnel with a crew of 155; the smallest (Enforcer 12026) is 120 metres with an embarked force of 200-270 and a crew of 90. The new Enforcer design is highlighted as a contender for a possible UK / Netherlands amphibious requirement with both nations exploring options for joint acquisition of a new common LHP design to replace the three Bay-class and two Albion-class ships, plus RFA Argus of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

and Royal Fleet Auxiliary (known as the Multi-Role Support Ship program), as well as the two Rotterdam-class LPDs and the four Holland-class offshore patrol vessels of the Royal Netherland Navy (Known as LPX program).

Ships based on Enforcer design

Here is a list of ships that are based on the Enforcer design.

References

{{Reflist Amphibious warfare vessels