The Belgian M-frigate BNS Louise-Marie has been under the flag of Operation Aspides since yesterday, the EU mission announced yesterday. The M frigate arrived in the Red Sea shortly before. Zr.Ms. Karel Doorman has not yet passed through the Suez Canal. The crew stood still for two minutes yesterday in connection with Remembrance Day and did so moored in Crete.
BNS Louise-Marie on archive image. (Photo: Belgian Defense)
The Louise-Marie can finally start its deployment to the Middle East, which the ship has been working towards for so long. The old HNLMS. Willem van der Zaan appeared to be struggling with technical problems surrounding several weapon systems before passage through the Suez Canal. After a visit to the south of France, testing was carried out again and then a course was set for the Aspides operations area, where the ‘LOMA’ will be concerned with protecting merchant ships against attacks by Houthis.
With the arrival of the frigate, the number of ships participating in Aspides has increased somewhat. After a reasonable occupation in the initial period, the Italian destroyer ITS Caio Duilio (Orizzonte class) and the German frigate Hessen (Sachsen class) recently left the EU mission. The staff transferred to the Italian frigate ITS Virginio Fasan (Bergamini class). Furthermore, the management of the mission in Greece also has the Greek frigate Hydra (Hydra class) and a French FREMM frigate.
However, according to the mission’s Greek commander Vasileios Gryparis, the German magazine Der Spiegel reports, this is far too little. Gryparis is said to have warned in a confidential conversation in Brussels that with so few ships he can protect a maximum of four merchant ships per day. The Greek admiral reportedly said he needed ten naval ships and a drone or maritime patrol aircraft.
For the time being, this need is only met to a limited extent by the operation. The Netherlands sent a frigate, but that was for just under a month as part of the other operation in the Red Sea. Zr.Ms. Karel Doorman cannot escort ships, but the ship can ensure that the frigates stay in the operating area longer. The ship can also serve as the flagship of the operation.
Remembrance Day on board Zr.Ms. Karel Doorman. The ship’s namesake himself died during the Second World War, during the Battle of the Java Sea in 1941. Also on board HNLMS. De Ruyter (in British waters), HNLMS. Van Amstel (Norway) and Zr.Ms. A commemoration was held in Groningen (Caribbean). (Photo: Defense)
Doorman and Tromp
The Karel Doorman is expected to connect shortly. The ship was photographed yesterday moored at a quay on the Greek island of Crete by a public Sentinel 2 satellite. It is not known when the Doorman will pass through the Suez Canal. It will be a first for the largest Dutch naval ship; de Doorman has not been in those waters before.
It has also been a long time since there were two Dutch naval ships east of Suez operated. This will soon be the Doorman and Air Defense and Command Frigate Zr.Ms. Be Trump. After all, the Tromp sailed through the Suez Canal some time ago. The frigate is currently moored in Singapore, where ship and crew commemorated the victims of the Second World War on May 4. A delegation from the ship had gone to the Kranji war memorial and the honorary cemetery to lay wreaths. The monument contains the names of 24,000 dead who fought on the side of the Allies. More than four thousand people are buried in the cemetery, including twenty Dutch soldiers.
After Singapore, the South China Sea follows for the Tromp.
| | Author: Jaime Karremann Jaime is the founder of Marineschappen.nl and has written more than 1,500 articles on various naval topics. In 2017, he published his non-fiction book In the utmost secrecy out and later a submarine thriller Orca. Before Jaime started working on this site full-time, he worked in the Navy for over 12 years, most of which in a civilian position. Jaime studied Communications in Groningen. |
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