Damen Naval has chosen Kongsberg Maritime Sweden to supply the four Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) frigates for the Netherlands and Belgium with shaft lines and adjustable pitch propellers. Kongsberg will provide four shipsets of its controllable pitch propeller systems, together with related parts such shaft lines, hubcaps, hubs, and blades, as part of this contract.
The present Karel Doorman-class multipurpose frigates will be replaced by the four ASW frigates. Although they will be used for many different purposes, their primary objective will be anti-submarine warfare. The ships will be built with silent operation in mind and will be powered by a hybrid diesel-electric system.
In the last 18 months, Damen Naval and Kongsberg Maritime have worked together twice. It comes after a comparable agreement that the businesses in September 2022 for the German navy’s F126 frigates.
“The involvement of Kongsberg Maritime in the ASW-frigate project is fantastic news, remarks Richard Keulen, Director of Corporate Strategy and Innovation at Damen Naval. The company and I have a longstanding relationship, and it serves as a great example of the excellent cooperation between the naval shipbuilding industries in Sweden and the Netherlands.”
“Kongsberg Maritime is proud to have been selected as a partner for this significant Damen Naval frigate program,” says Vice President of Kongsberg Maritime, Navy Björn ten Eicken. The new frigates’ propulsion system has been tuned to meet the exacting mission requirements of the customers, especially with regard to noise signature—a critical component of anti-submarine warfare operations.
The Dutch Ministry of Defence is a key partner in the ASW-frigate project, with the MoD handling some of the work itself. The hulls are going to be constructed in Romania and then transported to Vlissingen for final assembly. The first ship is anticipated to be delivered in 2028 by Damen Naval.
