The new mine countermeasure vessel Vlissingen entered its home port of Den Helder for the first time on 27 February and was delivered to the Royal Netherlands Navy. Shortly before berthing, smoke developed in an electrical cabinet. The naval fire brigade attended the vessel and the situation is now under control.
An investigation into the cause of the smoke will follow.
The contract for the mine countermeasure vessels was awarded to Belgium Naval & Robotics, the consortium formed by Naval Group and Exail, in 2019. Naval Group is responsible for the design of the vessels. Exail designs and delivers the naval drones. The vessels are being built and assembled by Piriou, under the industrial project management of Kership, a joint venture between Naval Group and Piriou.
In the coming period, the ship will undergo testing and work-up. The overall integration, testing and commissioning of the mission system will be carried out in close collaboration with Exail, ensuring full operational coherences between the vessels and the unmanned capabilities.
The solution acquired by the Royal Netherlands Navy represents a complete paradigm shift in mine countermeasures, with the ship and its crew remaining at a safe distance from danger (stand-off). This solution increases the speed of mine clearance tenfold compared to conventional methods.
Also read: Minehunter HNLMS Schiedam joins NATO task group
Sensors and unmanned systems
The ships are the first to have the capacity to carry, launch or fly and reconfigure a set of surface drones (ships measuring around 12 metres and weighing 19 tonnes), underwater drones and aerial drones. They are the first to implement a fully robotic system for the detection, classification, identification and neutralisation of mines. They can withstand underwater explosions and have very low acoustic, electrical and magnetic signatures, in line with the missions to be carried out.
Once operational, Vlissingen will safeguard shipping routes and help protect critical subsea infrastructure. The drone toolbox allows the vessel to clear mine-threatened areas without entering them itself.
Sea mines are relatively cheap and easy to produce. Hostile states can deploy them to block key sea lanes and straits. Mine countermeasures therefore remain a vital naval capability. Tens of thousands of mines and other explosives from the First and Second World Wars are still estimated to lie in the North Sea.
Binational project
Vlissingen is the first completed Dutch mine countermeasure vessel under a binational programme between the Netherlands and Belgium, with each country ordering six ships. Belgium leads the project. The twelve vessels are being built by Naval Group in France and are scheduled for delivery by 2030. The first Belgian ship, Oostende, arrived in Zeebrugge in November.
Following official commissioning, the ship will receive the prefix HNLMS (His Majesty’s Ship). For the nearly 83-metre-long Vlissingen, this is expected in May. The vessel’s pennant number is M840. Its arrival marks another important step in the fleet renewal of the Royal Netherlands Navy.
Also read: Netherlands and Belgium to transfer minehunters to Bulgaria
City-class
The City-class minehunters were described in detail in SWZ|Maritime’s September 2025 navy special by SWZ editor Bruno Bouckaert. Some of the highlights from this article are included below.
The class, now known as City-class (in Belgium) or Vlissingen-class (in the Netherlands), has a steel hull of 82.6 metres with a beam of 17 metres. All vessels will be named after Belgian and Dutch cities. The foredeck has a Bofors 40 Mk4 canon from BAE systems. The wheelhouse is located quite far forward to make room for the drone hangar behind. Rear-facing cameras, coupled to dedicated screens on the bridge, ensure all-around visibility.
On top of the hangar is a landing deck for aerial drones. Two Saab Skeldar V-200 drones are stored in a hangar behind the wheelhouse. These provide a beyond-the-horizon view, can dip sonars in the water and provide a communication link when the unmanned surface vessels (USVs) are at a large distance. Behind the superstructure is a small aft deck, with a large crane and three positions available for containers, which can have various uses.
In the bulbous bow, an Exail Forward Looking Sonar is housed, both for situational awareness when the toolkit is on board and to have a clear overview of the deployed drones during missions. The system consists of a SeapiX FLS-7 multi-beam sonar that maps the bottom in shallow waters and detects unusual objects.
The accommodation provides for a crew of 29 persons. The floors of spaces where people work from seated positions, such as the wheelhouse and the operations room, are mounted on shock-dampening devices to ensure work can continue if a mine should explode nearby.
Two SOLAS fast rescue boats are provided, one on each side, in an open bay just forward of the drone hangar. There is no active stabilisation system on the vessels, as the platform is sufficiently stable to fulfil its tasks.
Propulsion
Propulsion is diesel-electric, with three diesel generators from Anglo-Belgian Corporation, all with an IMO Tier III rating:
- Two six-cylinder inline engines (6DZC) in one engine room, each rated at 1273 kWe.
- One twelve-cylinder V-type engine (12VDZC) in another engine room, rated at 2546 kWe.
A power management system matches the power supply to the load at any time. For propulsion and dynamic positioning, the vessel disposes of two fixed-pitch main propellers – driven by Indar electric motors of 1800 kW each, two Wärtsilä bow thrusters and a Wärtsilä stern thruster. The ships have level 2 dynamic positioning, which prevents them from drifting into unsafe waters while stationkeeping during drone operations.
Also read: First Belgian and Dutch minehunter donated to Ukraine
LARS
One of the most essential features of the vessel is the launch and recovery system (LARS) for the deployment of the Inspector 125, a 12.3-metre unmanned surface vehicle (USV). The position of the hangar at roughly 1/3 of the ship’s length was chosen for minimal pitch motions.
In the large hangar are cranes, storage positions for the drones and control positions necessary for the complete preparation of the USVs, in a completely shielded space. The USVs can be launched either on port or starboard, and their position can even be changed within the hangar.
Minehunting
Once the mines or unexploded ordnance are charted with the sonars, it’s time for mine clearing operations with the mine identification and disposal systems, supplied by Exail. For this operation, the Inspector 125 can be loaded with up to two Seascan-M modules or up to four K-Ster C modules.
Both are very similar ROVs, tethered with a cable to the USV, but while the K-Ster C is loaded with an explosive charge at the front, the Seascan-M has a forward-looking sonar and high-definition camera for detailed inspection and classification of the mines. When deployed, the K-Ster C will usually be destroyed, which is why each City-class vessel will have forty units on board.
In addition to the meticulous minehunting procedure described above, the USV can also be used for the more rudimentary approach of minesweeping. In this case, a SONAC ACS from Patria is towed from the USV. The device consists of a float and an underwater body tethered to the float.
The underwater body has built-in speakers to emit the acoustic signal of any ship and therefore detonate acoustically activated mines. In addition to all the drones, the MCMVs can also deploy a team of divers. These can access the water either through a ladder on the aft ship or via the USVs.
Technical specifications
- Length: 82.6 m overall
- Beam: 17 m overall
- Displacement: 2,800 tonnes
- Maximum speed: 15.3 knots
- Range: >3,500 nautical miles
- Accommodation: 63 people
- Drone capabilities: UMISOFT Exail system, 2 surface drones (Inspector 125 Exail), 3 autonomous underwater vehicles (A-18 equipped with UMISAS 120 Exail sonar), 2 towed sonars planned (T-18 equipped with UMISAS 240 Exail sonar), 2 mine identification and destruction systems (Seascan and K-Ster C Exail), 2 aerial drones (V200 Saab Skeldar), 1 Exail influence dredger planned incorporating 5 CTM magnetic modules and 1 PATRIA acoustic module.
- Embarkation capacity: 2 x 7m SOLAS RHIB boats.
- Handling: 2 x side gantries with floating cradle for 19t surface drones and commando boats, 1 rear crane with a capacity of 15 tonnes, overhead crane with a capacity of 3 tonnes
Picture: New mine countermeasure vessel Vlissingen arrives in Den Helder (photo by Dutch Ministry of Defence).
Also read: Fourth Mine Countermeasure Vessel launched, steel cut for number eight
