HNLMS ''De Zeven Provinciën'' (F802) is the first ship of the air defence and command

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...

s in service with 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 ...

(RNLN). There are three other ships in this class, , , and . ''De Zeven Provinciën'' is the eighth ship in the Royal Netherlands Navy to carry this name. The name refers to the original seven Dutch provinces which together formed the

Union of Utrecht The Union of Utrecht () was an alliance based on an agreement concluded on 23 January 1579 between a number of Habsburg Netherlands, Dutch provinces and cities, to reach a joint commitment against the king, Philip II of Spain. By joining forces ...

. She was built by

Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding Damen Naval is a Dutch shipyard, and a continuation of the Koninklijke Maatschappij De Schelde, responsible for a number of ships used by the Royal Netherlands Navy. It is owned by the Damen Group. Damen Naval is situated in Vlissingen. History ...

(formerly the Koninklijke Schelde Groep) in

Vlissingen Vlissingen (; ) is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the island of Walcheren. With its strategic location between the Scheldt river and the North Sea, Vlissingen has been an importan ...

. Her design incorporates stealth technology, as well as advanced radars of Dutch design such as SMART-L and APAR. As of December 2009, Commander Hugo L.J. Ammerlaan is ''De Zeven Provinciën''s commanding officer.

Operational history

On 21 March 2006, the container ship suffered a major explosion and massive fire in the aft on-deck container stacks. When efforts to control the fire failed, the crew abandoned ship and were picked up by ''De Zeven Provinciën''. On 4 April 2006, ''De Zeven Provinciën'' along with the

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

responded to MV ''Dong Won'' which reported that it had come under rocket attack off the coast of Somalia. However, the

pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

had already hijacked the vessel and reached Somali territorial waters after threatening the captured crew. ''De Zeven Provinciën'' and ''Roosevelt'' continued to monitor the situation. On 29 March 2009, as ''De Zeven Provinciën'' was part of

Operation Atalanta Operation Atalanta, formally European Union Naval Force (EU NAVFOR) Somalia, is an ongoing counter-piracy military operation at sea off the Horn of Africa and in the Western Indian Ocean, that is the first naval operation conducted by the ...

, the

German Navy The German Navy (, ) is part of the unified (Federal Defense), the German Armed Forces. The German Navy was originally known as the ''Bundesmarine'' (Federal Navy) from 1956 to 1995, when ''Deutsche Marine'' (German Navy) became the official ...

tanker was attacked by 7-man pirate boat. ''Spessart'' had a 12-man security detail which exchanged fire with the pirates which repelled the attack. ''De Zeven Provinciën '' along with the , , , and intervened. The pirates were later captured after a chase lasting a few hours. ''De Zeven Provinciën'' provided security during the

2014 Nuclear Security Summit The 2014 Nuclear Security Summit was a Summit (meeting), summit held in The Hague, the Netherlands, on March 24 and 25, 2014. It was the third edition of the conference, succeeding the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit. The 2014 summit was attended by ...

. That same year the ship also took part in exercises and performed tests in relation to its weapon systems. ''De Zeven Provinciën'' participated in Exercise Formidable Shield 2021. During the exercise, she fired two

RIM-162 ESSM The RIM-162 Evolved SeaSparrow Missile (ESSM) is a development of the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow missile used to protect ships from attacking missiles and aircraft. ESSM is designed to counter supersonic maneuvering anti-ship missiles. ESSM also has the ab ...

and assisted in intercepting a ballistic missile using its SMART-L radar. Between March–July 2022, ''De Zeven Provinciën'' was part of

Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 Standing NATO Maritime Group One (SNMG1) is one of NATO's standing naval maritime immediate reaction forces. SNMG1 consists of four to six destroyers and frigates. Its role is to provide NATO with an immediate operational response capability. H ...

. She had port calls in

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

and Devonport. On 9 October 2022, ''De Zeven Provinciën'' along with deployed to conduct drills with the aircraft carrier .

Live missile firings

''De Zeven Provinciën'' carries the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (

ESSM The RIM-162 Evolved SeaSparrow Missile (ESSM) is a development of the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow missile used to protect ships from attacking missiles and aircraft. ESSM is designed to counter supersonic maneuvering anti-ship missiles. ESSM also has the ab ...

) and the SM-2 Block IIIA missile systems. The primary sensor used to guide these missile systems is APAR. In November 2003, approximately from the

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

, ''De Zeven Provinciën'' conducted her first live firings of these missile systems. The firings involved a single ESSM and a single SM-2. These firings were particularly significant in that they were the first ever live firings involving a full-size ship-borne

Active Electronically Scanned Array An active electronically scanned array (AESA) is a type of phased array antenna, which is a computer-controlled antenna array in which the beam of radio waves can be electronically steered to point in different directions without moving the a ...

(i.e., APAR) guiding missiles using the Interrupted Continuous Wave Illumination (ICWI) technique in an operational environment.Jane's International Defence Review, February 2004, "Active phased array multifunction radars go live for missile firings" As related by Jane's Navy International: Further live firings were performed by ''De Zeven Provinciën'' in March 2005, again in the Atlantic Ocean approximately west of the Azores. The tests involved three live-firing events including firing a single SM-2 at an Iris target drone at long range, a single ESSM at an Iris target drone, and a two-salvo launch (with one salvo comprising two SM-2s and the other comprising two ESSMs) against two incoming Iris target drones. The long-range SM-2 engagement apparently resulted in an intercept at a range of greater than from the ship, with a missile-target miss distance of (the warhead's proximity fuze having been disabled for the purposes of the test). On 24 October 2015 ''De Zeven Provinciën'' performed maritime integrated air and missile defense during a At Sea Demonstration (ASD). In May, 2021 during At Sea Demonstration/Formidable Shield 2021 ''De Zeven Provinciën'' detected and tracked a ballistic missile with SMART-L radar and relayed the target information to . The intercepted and destroyed the ballistic missile with

SM-3 The RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) is a ship-based surface-to-air missile used by the United States Navy to intercept ballistic missiles as a part of Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System. Although primarily designed as an anti-ballistic mis ...

surface-to-air missile. During the exercise it also performed a Plot Level Data Exchange and Fusion (PLDEF) with the French frigate ''Forbin''.

Gallery

File:HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën during NSS.jpg, ''De Zeven Provinciën'' at the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

during the

File:Hr Ms De Zeven Provinciën helpt brandend containerschip2 tcm46-95807.jpg, ''De Zeven Provinciën'' helps on 3 March 2006. File:HNLMS De Zeven Provincien fires a SM-2.jpg, ''De Zeven Provinciën'' fires an SM-2 File:Zeven Provinciën crossing the Thames Barrier in London.jpg, ''De Zeven Provinciën'' crossing the

Thames Barrier The Thames Barrier is a retractable barrier system built to protect the floodplain of most of Greater London from exceptionally high tides and storm surges moving up from the North Sea. It has been operational since 1982. When needed, it is c ...

in London

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:De Zeven Provincien F802 De Zeven Provinciën-class frigates Frigates of the Royal Netherlands Navy 2000 ships Ships built in Vlissingen