HNLMS ''Tromp'' (F803) (

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

: "Zr. Ms. ''Tromp''") is the second of 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 ...

. The ship was laid down in 1999, launched in 2001, and commissioned in 2003. The frigate is named after

naval hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such things for the sake of ...

Maarten Tromp Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp or Maarten van Tromp (23 April 1598 – 31 July 1653) was an army general and admiral in the Dutch navy during much of the Eighty Years' War and throughout the First Anglo-Dutch War. Son of a ship's captain, Tromp spe ...

(1598–1653) and

Cornelis Tromp Cornelis Maartenszoon Tromp, ''Count of Sølvesborg'' (3 September 1629 – 29 May 1691) was a Dutch naval officer who served as lieutenant-admiral general in the Dutch Navy, and briefly as a general admiral in the Royal Danish-Norwegian ...

(1629–1691). As of 18 June 2010, Commander René Tas is HNLMS ''Tromp''s commanding officer.

Service history

Theatre Ballistic Missile Tracking Exercises, 2006

In November 2006, HNLMS ''Tromp'' participated in a live Theatre Ballistic Missile (TBM) Tracking Exercise (TRACKEX). The event took place on the Pacific Missile Range Facility off Hawaii. For the TRACKEX, ''Tromp'' was equipped with the experimental Extended Long Range (ELR) modification to its

Thales Nederland Thales Nederland B.V. (formerly Hollandse Signaalapparaten B.V. or in short Signaal) is a subsidiary of the French multinational company Thales Group based in the Netherlands. The firm was founded as ''NV Hazemeyer's Fabriek van Signaalapparate ...

SMART-L SMART-L (Signaal Multibeam Acquisition Radar for Tracking, L band) is a long-range naval search radar introduced in 2002 by Thales Nederland, formerly Hollandse Signaalapparaten (Signaal). Design The digital antenna array has 24 elements; all a ...

radar. During the exercise, a ballistic missile surrogate was launched from Kauai Island and was successfully tracked by HNLMS ''OS2 Vincent Li'' using its ELR-modified SMART-L radar. Another successful TRACKEX was held in December 2006.

Deployment to the Indian Ocean, 2010

''Tromp'' deployed to the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa as 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 ...

, which is composed of

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

naval units. The operation is tasked with suppression of piracy in the region. On 14 March 2010, ''Tromp'' responded to a distress call from the transport ship , which was under attack from two pirate

skiff A skiff is any of a variety of essentially unrelated styles of small boats, usually propelled by sails or oars. Traditionally, these are coastal craft or river craft used for work, leisure, as a utility craft, and for fishing, and have a one-pers ...

s. ''Tromp'' launched her helicopter, which forced the

whaler A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Jap ...

mother ship to stop. ''Tromp'' then sent a boarding party to secure the vessel. The following day, ''Tromp'' tracked down the two skiffs about from the whaler and stopped them. Crew from ''Tromp'' sank the mother ship, and confiscated satellite phones,

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is an assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kala ...

s, a

rocket launcher A rocket launcher is a weapon that launches an unguided, rocket-propelled projectile. History The earliest rocket launchers documented in imperial China consisted of arrows modified by the attachment of a rocket motor to the shaft a few i ...

, and boarding equipment. Three days later, on 17 March 2010, ''Tromp'' was involved in an incident with suspected pirates off the coast of eastern Africa. Two small boats approached the frigate at high speed. After realizing ''Tromp'' was a warship, the pirates fled. However, ''Tromp'' pursued and captured the two boats, along with a mother ship. The frigate destroyed the two boats and released the pirates to the mother ship, after it had been cleared of weapons. On 5 April 2010, ''Tromp'' rescued the container ship MV ''Taipan'' by rappelling six Marines from its

Lynx A lynx ( ; : lynx or lynxes) is any of the four wikt:extant, extant species (the Canada lynx, Iberian lynx, Eurasian lynx and the bobcat) within the medium-sized wild Felidae, cat genus ''Lynx''. The name originated in Middle Engl ...

helicopter (under covering fire from the helicopter and ''Tromp'') to the deck of ''Taipan'', resulting in the capture of 10 pirates. The 13 crew (2 German, 3 Russian, 8 Sri Lankan) were unharmed having taken refuge in a secure location after stopping the ship's engines.

State Visit Norway, 2010

On 1 June 2010,

Queen Beatrix Beatrix (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, ; born 31 January 1938) is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 30 April 1980 until her abdication in 2013. Beatrix was born during the reign of her maternal gr ...

visited

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

aboard ''Tromp'' for a 3-day

state visit A state visit is a formal visit by the head of state, head of a sovereign state, sovereign country (or Governor-general, representative of the head of a sovereign country) to another sovereign country, at the invitation of the head of state (or ...

2011 Libyan civil war

On her return to her homeport in February 2011 through the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

, the ship was deployed to the

Gulf of Sidra The Gulf of Sidra (), also known as the Gulf of Sirte (), is a body of water in the Mediterranean Sea on the northern coast of Libya, named after the oil port of Sidra or the city of Sirte. It was also historically known as the Great Sirte or G ...

to potentially assist in the safe return of Dutch nationals during the

2011 Libyan civil war The Libyan civil war, also known as the First Libyan Civil War and Libyan Revolution, was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya that was fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were ...

. While performing an evacuation mission near the town of

Sirte Sirte (; , ), also spelled Sirt, Surt, Sert or Syrte, is a city in Libya. It is located south of the Gulf of Sirte, almost right in the middle between Tripoli and Benghazi. It is famously known for its battles, ethnic groups and loyal ...

, a Lynx helicopter and its three-man crew were captured by members of the

Libyan Army The Libyan Army () is the brand for a number of separate military forces in Libya, which were under the command of the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) and the Government of National Unity (GNU). Since December 20 ...

. The Dutch engineer and Swedish woman they were trying to rescue were allowed to leave Libya; negotiations yielded the crew's release.

Exercise Formidable Shield 2017

''Tromp'' along with sister ship participated in Exercise Formidable Shield 2017 off the coast of Scotland. She fired an SM-2 missile and a

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 ...

at a supersonic target fired by

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

F-16 The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it e ...

aircraft.

2022 Standing NATO Maritime Group 1

On 11 September 2022, ''Tromp'' departed Nieuwe Haven to join

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 ...

. This was the first deployment for ''Tromp'' since undergoing a midlife update from 2018 to 2021.

Pacific Archer 2024 & Operation Prosperity Guardian

On 9 March 2024, ''Tromp'', embarking an NH90 NFH departed for her six-month deployment, sailing first to the Red Sea to deploy under

Operation Prosperity Guardian Operation Prosperity Guardian is a United States-led military operation by a multinational Military coalition, coalition formed in December 2023 to respond to Red Sea crisis#Houthi attacks on commercial vessels, Houthi-led attacks on shipp ...

whilst providing associated support for

Operation Aspides Operation Aspides, also known as EUNAVFOR Aspides, is an EU military operation in response to Houthi engagements with international shipping in the Red Sea. Named after the Greek word for shields (), Operation Aspides—unlike the US-led Ope ...

. She entered the area of operations in late March 2024, and continued on to the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

in late April 2024. During the deployment, the ship was once raised to

general quarters General quarters, battle stations, or action stations is an announcement made aboard a navy, naval warship to signal that all hands (everyone available) aboard a ship must go to battle stations (the positions they are to assume when the ves ...

, the first such incident in the Royal Netherlands Navy since the

Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

. During its patrols in the

East China Sea The East China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. China names the body of water along its eastern coast as "East Sea" (, ) due to direction, the name of "East China Sea" is otherwise ...

the ship was circled by two Chinese warplanes several times. ''Tromp'' participated in RIMPAC 2024 and on 23 July 2024, she fired a

Harpoon anti-ship missile The Harpoon is an all-weather, over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile manufactured by McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing Defense, Space & Security). The AGM-84E Standoff Land Attack Missile (SLAM) and later AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER (Standoff Land Attack Miss ...

as part of a

SINKEX A target ship is a vessel — typically an obsolete or captured warship — used as a seaborne target for naval gunnery practice or for weapons testing. Targets may be used with the intention of testing effectiveness of specific types of ammunit ...

against a decommissioned US Navy vessel.

2025 Baltic Sentry

In January 2025, ''Tromp'', as part of Standing NATO Maritime Group 1, took part in Baltic Sentry, protecting undersea cables in the Baltic.

Gallery

File:HNLMS Tromp (F803).jpg, File:HNLMS Tromp.JPG,

References

External links

* *
Hr. Ms. Tromp
official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Tromp (F803) 2001 ships Frigates of the Royal Netherlands Navy De Zeven Provinciën-class frigates Ships built in the Netherlands