Last week, the new patrol ship “Holland” was transferred to the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) in the port of Scheveningen. Four signatures were placed by the director of Damen Schelde Naval Shipyard (DSNS) to transfer ‘the ship of the future’. Daily management of the vessel is taken care of by the Royal Netherlands Navy.
“Some really hard work was put into the effort to finish the “Holland” on time,” said Hein van Ameijden , director of DSNS . “Over the last few months, everyone here at DSNS, but also the ship’s commander and crew, worked around the clock to deliver a good product. I wish you a great deal of pleasure and success with the Holland. ”
Ocean-going Patrol Vessels
The Holland is the first of a new class of patrol ships, the Ocean-going Patrol Vessels (OPVs). This class will replace the M-frigates, that have already been sold. The OPVs are a size smaller than their predecessors and slightly lighter armed, but they are perfectly suitable for tasks such as anti-piracy, humanitarian relief and evacuation operations and counter-trafficking operations.
Lessons learned
The commander of the Holland, Commander Chris van den Berg, and his 50-strong crew, have been in Flushing since January 2010, where they were kept busy writing the documentation needed to keep the patrol vessel in operation. According to Van den Berg, the ship meets all expectations and the lessons learned from previous and current operations have been properly incorporated into this new class of vessels.
Mast
The ship’s special mast will be finished by the Thales company by the end of this year and subsequently installed on the ship in Flushing. The mast incorporates the Integrated Sensor and Communication Suite, a sophisticated system which is able to detect large air targets but also smaller and slow-moving objects such as drowning persons or floating mines from a distance using radar. If necessary, the ship can deploy one NH90 helicopter and two Fast-Raiding Interception and Special Forces Craft (FRISC) as interceptors.
( defensie ) [mappress] Source: defensie, May 20, 2011;