The ''Cerberus'' class are four diving support vessels in service with the

Royal Netherlands Navy The Royal Netherlands Navy ( nl, Koninklijke Marine, links=no) is the naval force of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. During the 17th century, the navy of the Dutch Republic (1581–1795) was one of the most powerful naval forces in the world an ...

. Built by Scheepswerf Visser at

Den Helder Den Helder () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Den Helder occupies the northernmost point of the North Holland peninsula. It is home to the country's main naval base. From here the Royal TESO fe ...

, their mission is to help the explosive ordnance disposal unit with

bomb disposal Bomb disposal is an explosives engineering profession using the process by which hazardous Explosive device, explosive devices are rendered safe. ''Bomb disposal'' is an all-encompassing term to describe the separate, but interrelated functi ...

and to serve as a platform to train new navy divers.

Ships in class

Construction and career

Two of the ships have undergone modifications since being commissioned. In 1997 ''Hydra'' received a extension in the mid-section and a new

bow thruster Manoeuvering thruster (bow thruster or stern thruster) is a transversal propulsion device built into, or mounted to, either the bow or stern, of a ship or boat to make it more manoeuvrable. Bow thrusters make docking easier, since they allow th ...

among other things. The lengthening gave here a new displacement of 340 t. ''Nautilus'' followed with the same modifications in 2008. As a result, these two ships can carry an additional 2 crew and 22 passengers. All ships are set to be replaced along with the , , , and the ''Van Kinsbergen'' by a common family of ships. The builder of the new ships will be selected in 2024.

References

External links

Cerberus-class at defensie.nl
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cerberus-class diving support vessel Auxiliary ships of the Royal Netherlands Navy