Three months in the Baltic Sea. That’s the prospect for the Royal Netherlands Navy’s hydrographic survey vessel HNLMS Snellius, which set sail on 13 April. The ship will relieve HNLMS Luymes in the Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 (SNMCMG) 1, a NATO fleet contingent.
SNMCMG1’s tasks include defusing explosives in the sea. It also has to prevent sabotage of undersea infrastructure. Think of the many cables running across the seabed. That operation is conducted under the name Baltric Sentry.
Also read: Dutch defence industry and innovation get boost
Seabed
The Snellius can provide important support in these tasks. It is a hydrographic survey vessel. It maps changes in the seabed of busy shipping lanes. The ship has previously done this mainly in the North Sea and the Caribbean. Now, it will perform these tasks for NATO in the Baltic Sea. The Snellius also participates in international exercises.
The Snellius is one of two hydrograhic survey vessels in the Royal Netherlands Navy fleet. The other one being HNLMS Luymes. The Snellius was commissioned in December 2003. The ship is named after Willebrord Snellius, a professor of mathematics and physics who lived in the sixteenth/seventeenth century.
Picture: HNLMS Snellius leaving the port (photo by the Dutch Ministry of Defence).
