The Auxiliary ship replacement program is set to replace ten

auxiliary ship An auxiliary ship is a naval ship designed to support combatant ships and other naval operations. Auxiliary ships are not primary combatant vessels, though they may have some limited combat capacity, usually for purposes of self-defense. Auxil ...

s of the Royal Netherlands Navy from various classes by eight new ships which will be built by a Dutch shipyard.

History

In 2020 the A-letter was sent by the Dutch Defence Materiel Administration (DMO) to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

outlining the plans for the new ships. The program will consists of two variants, a coastal variant and an ocean going one. The first ship was supposed to enter service in 2024. But due to delays in the decision making this was pushed back. The B-letter followed in June 2022 specifying further details. For example that the ships need to be

carbon neutral Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the " ...

and that they need to be able to use methanol capable

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...

s. The new vessels are planned along the lines of the

commercial off-the-shelf Commercial off-the-shelf or commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) products are packaged or canned (ready-made) hardware or software, which are adapted aftermarket to the needs of the purchasing organization, rather than the commissioning of ...

concept. In 2024 the builder will be announced in the D-letter, following a

RfQ A Request for Quote (RfQ) is a financial term for certain way to ask a bank for an offer of a given financial instrument from a bank, made available by so-called Approved Publication Arrangement (APA) by the stock markets itself or by Financial d ...

which will be sent out in 2023. In February 2023 it was revealed that three major shipyards are interested in the project. These yards are the

Damen Group The Damen Group is a Dutch defence, shipbuilding, and engineering conglomerate company based in Gorinchem, Netherlands. Though it is a major international group doing business in 120 countries, it remains a private family-owned company. Da ...

Royal IHC Royal IHC or Koninklijke IHC, previously IHC Holland (1943–1995), IHC Holland Merwede (1995–2005) and IHC Merwede (2005–2014) is a Dutch shipbuilding company with headquarters in Kinderdijk. It focuses on the development, design and const ...

& Thecla Bodewes. Two smaller shipyards are also rumored to be interested in the program, but possible only for the building of the coastal version. These yards are Holland Shipyards & Neptune Marine.

Ocean going

The sea going variant will replace the five larger vessels:

Coastal

The coastal variant will replace the five smaller vessels:

References

{{Reflist Royal Netherlands Navy Proposed ships of the Royal Netherlands Navy Military acquisition Military planning

History

Ocean going

Coastal

See also

References