Royal Netherlands Navy

HNLMS KAREL DOORMAN
Dutch Defense Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert has christened HNLMS Karel Doorman (A388), a multi-function support ship of the Royal Netherlands Navy intended for amphibious operations.

The christening ceremony was held in Vlissingen, a city in the southwestern Netherlands, on March 8th. Having been christened, the 204.7m-long  vessel will proceed to sea trials in May.
Majority of the vessel’s construction, which is estimated to be worth around 400 million Euros, was completed at Damen’s shipyard in Romania. Subsequently, the vessel was towed mid last year to Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding for final outfitting.



HNLMS Karel Doorman, will replace  the now-retired HNLMS Zuidekruis and the HNLMS Amsterdam.
The ship can be used for multiple purposes, including warship fueling and resupply, transportation of Army equipment, and serve as a floating hospital. It has 2000 lane meters for transport of material such as tracked & wheeled vehicles or containers.
It is expected to be inducted into service by 2015.

The new Royal Netherlands Navy vessel HNLMS Karel Doorman will set sail for the first time on Tuesday, July 1st at Den Helder naval port.

HNLMS Karel Doorman conducted her first sea trials on Sunday, June 22, at the Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding’s (DSNS) Vlissingen yard.
On Wednesday, June 25, the vessel performed its first replenishment-at-sea operation, which will be one of its main tasks in the future. The ship can be used for multiple purposes, including warship fueling and resupply, transportation of Army equipment, and serving as a floating hospital.
Dutch Defense Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert christened HNLMS Karel Doorman (A388) on March 8th.
HNLMS Karel Doorman, which will replace  the now-retired HNLMS Zuidekruis and the HNLMS Amsterdam, is expected to be inducted into service by 2015.

Edit: the picture is a little bit Huge but the Doorman is sailing on the right.

Impressive looking ship. +1

sepheronx wrote:Impressive looking ship. +1

Thanks  

Looks very nice.
Maybe some pictures of the weaponary in close up?

just a shame our glorious dutch defense minister herself gutted half the ship's capability's with her budget cuts she personally signed.

at first the Dutch Goverment planned to sell the ship on completion, but on reccomending to keep her from the german and french millitary's wanting an resupply ship "close to home" the dutch goverment eventually kept her.

ive visited it once tough at Den Helder Harbour with a friend that wanted to go. its main loading ramps and cargo holds are really immense. for transporting logistics, supplies and troops its truly a behemoth. main battle tanks and other heavy millitary gear can unload and load easily from it.

its just tragic to see a ship with half of its full capability's installed/operational. it could have been almost something identical to the Mistral-class carrier.

weaponry itself is limited Werewolf, it (just) has 2 Goalkeeper CIWS, the navy hopes to upgrade it with 30 MM cannon systems and 12.7 MM CWRS systems that are centrally operated from Fire-Control. but...thats unlikely in the near future with the budget cuts.

Thanks for the information.

Airbornewolf is right her main weapons are two goalkeepers like these:



2 marlin systems like these



And 4 hitrole cannons like these:




Only first one is a close-up from the karel doorman i couldn't find more close-ups for the other systems.


Flyingdutchman.

Airbornewolf the other systems are installed too or i am i wrong?

Flyingdutchman wrote:Airbornewolf the other systems are installed too or i am i wrong?

negative, only the two Goalkeepers are installed at this time. i've not heard any scheduled re-fit either for the installation of the other two types of weapon systems.

only the navy officer telling me they where part of the original armanent but because of budget cuts the 30 MM and 12.7 MM systems where scrapped for optional install later on.

its one of the reasons i refer it as "half a ship".

most of its helicopter-flight deck support is missing as well. because the dutch aviation command had no helicopters available to assign to the ship they decided to save money on those systems.

Sounds pretty weak, not even self defensive capabilities that are worth mentioning for a ship of that size. :/

Werewolf wrote:Sounds pretty weak, not even self defensive capabilities that are worth mentioning for a ship of that size. :/

agreed, of course large supply ships are always under escort. but they at least should have armed it with the weapon systems that where planned at the start of construction.

but, it still acts as a good resupply/troop transport tough.

Airbornewolf wrote:

Werewolf wrote:Sounds pretty weak, not even self defensive capabilities that are worth mentioning for a ship of that size. :/

agreed, of course large supply ships are always under escort. but they at least should have armed it with the weapon systems that where planned at the start of construction.

but, it still acts as a good resupply/troop transport tough.

It should have at least some basic SAM missiles on board, CIWS are pretty weak for self defense purposes, since they have far shorter range and reaction time against incoming threats be it, incoming Anti Ship Missiles or any aircraft comming to close.

I agree with you but these ships will probably escort and these are Awesome, modern, ( heavily ) armed ships; Air Defence and Command Frigates.

Three stowaways found on Dutch navy ship returning from ebola mission

Three stowaways have been found aboard a Dutch navy ship which delivered aid to Ebola-hit nations in western Africa. The navy said the stowaways appear to have climbed up ropes to board the Karel Doorman while it was docked in Dakar, Senegal. During the stopover, the ship was guarded by local security officials while the entrance was guarded by the navy, the defense ministry is quoted as saying. The stowaways have been given a medical check-up and do not show any signs of the disease, news agency AFP reports. Once the ship has docked in the Netherlands, the men will be handed over to military police.

Read more at DutchNews.nl: Three stowaways found on Dutch navy ship returning from ebola mission http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2015/01/three-stowaways-found-on-dutch-navy-ship-returning-from-ebola-mission.php/