Tag Archives: Oostende (M940)

Minehunting in style

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The first City-class mine countermeasures vessel in active service has arrived on station, with the Belgian mine hunter Oostende (M940) pulling into Zeebrugge earlier this week.

The soon-to-be-donated Tripartite class mine hunter Lobelia (M921) met her at sea and escorted her home.

The 1980s vintage Tripartites are being replaced in Belgian, French, and Dutch service with the City-class vessels, which, as you can see above, are a huge upgrade.

The 2,800-ton, 270-foot City class carries a BAE Bofors 40mm Mk4 DP mount forward and two FN Herstal Sea deFNder remote mounts with FN M3R .50 cal heavy machine guns (one on the starboard bridge wing and the other overlooking the port stern). There are also four multipurpose mounts for GPMGs, LRADs, and water cannons for more constabulary sort of work.

The aviation deck is designed to carry and operate a pair of 500-pound UMS Skeldar V-200 rotary UAVs, also enabling vertical replenishment, personnel insertion/extraction, and HIFR via manned helicopters.

The boats carried include a 40-foot waterjet-propelled Exail Inspector 125 sonar-equipped USV mine buster and two 23-foot RHIBs.

The Skelar UAVs and Exhail Inspector USVs are depicted in use below:

In addition to a 33-man crew, they can carry another 30 transients, including divers and security teams/marines.

Compare this to the 600-ton/169-foot Tripartites, which still rely mainly on on-board sonar and surveys to dispatch clearance divers. Their armament is a 20mm gun and four MGs.

The Belgians had 10 Tripartites and have since passed seven of them on to Pakistan, France, Ukraine, and Bulgaria, with the final three set to be donated to Bulgaria in the coming months.

The Dutch had 15 Tripartites but have passed on all but the final three to Latvia, Pakistan, Bulgaria, and Ukraine. They plan to move the last trio to Bulgaria by 2028.

France had 10 original Tripartites and has decommissioned and disposed of five, with six remaining.

The plan is to replace them all with City-class vessels, with all three countries ordering six ships each.

Wouldn’t it have been great if the 14 retired/retiring 40-year-old U.S. Navy Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships had been replaced with a dedicated design more akin to this and less, well, LCS?

Not Your Daddy’s Minesweeper

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Back in the 1970s, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands all needed replacement minesweepers to phase out WWII-era vessels. The answer was to band together to jointly develop a class known to naval history as the Tripartite, of which some 35 were built to close out the Cold War.

Now showing their age, the 600-ton 169-foot Tripartites have been increasingly retired and passed on to second-hand users such as Ukraine, Pakistan, Latvia, and Bulgaria.

Dutch Tripartite-mijnejager Hr Ms Hellevoetsluis (M859, 1987-2011). NIMH N0009330-12

To replace the vessels in Belgian-Dutch service, as well as the 2,000-ton circa 1965 Belgian minesweeper tender Godetia, the two Lowland countries teamed up for a dozen assorted City-class MCMs that run much bigger (2800 tons, 270-foot) than the ships they are replacing, with each country picking up six new ships.

They look like a floating breadbox. 

Note the landing platform for UAVs and davits for USVs

M940 class model as viewed by Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima, along with Belgian King Philippe and Queen Mathilde

Leaning heavily into unmanned systems including unmanned surface, aerial, and underwater vehicles alongside towed sonars and mine identification and neutralization ROVs, they also carry a 40mm Bofors Mk4 DP gun, soft-kill systems such as an LRAD, and high-pressure water cannon, as well as several mounts for .50 cal remote guns and 7.62mm GPMGs. This allows the City class to clock in as needed for low-threat OPV and constabulary work, such as against pirates off Somalia and migrants in the Med.

The first of the class, the future Belgian minehunter Oostende (M940), began her pre-delivery sea trials earlier this month with a planned commissioning in December.