BNS Oostende, the first vessel for the Belgian Navy delivered under the replacement Mine CounterMeasures (rMCM) programme, has arrived in Zeebrugge.
In total 12 of the 83-metre ships will eventually be built for the Dutch and Belgian navies; the Vlissingen, the first rMCM vessel destined for the Royal Netherlands Navy, began sea trials in the summer of 2025 and is now scheduled to be delivered early next year.
Naval Group has designed the vessels; Exail is in charge of the UxV mission system, and the ships are being built and assembled by Piriou.
As per a Belgian MoD press statement: “The vessel is now registered under the military flag and integrated into the fleet. The Belgian Defence is therefore its legal owner and can begin its own operational preparations.”
Captain Ludo Portier, Head of the Maritime Systems and Procurement Section, described the milestone as “the culmination of an extraordinary human effort and cutting-edge engineering. It is a true triumph of collaborative shipbuilding, bringing about a revolutionary paradigm shift in mine warfare.”
Belgian sailors will now start operational readiness training on the vessel ahead of the uncrewed mission modules being officially handed over to the Navy in the months to come.
The ships are designed for fully autonomous remote MCM operations via the use of surface and underwater drones, supplied by Exail.
As per Exail: “These ships, specialised in mine warfare, will be 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. ”
Chairman and CEO of Naval Group Pierre Éric Pommellet noted: “This innovative drone-based solution will help strengthen the naval power of the Belgian and Dutch navies, thanks to its resilience capabilities already demonstrated during sea trials.”
Exail Maritime Division Director Jérôme Bendell said: “With its expertise in the entire drone system — from navigation technologies to complete command and control systems — Exail is contributing, within this European cooperation, to providing Belgium and the Netherlands with cutting-edge technological capabilities that will set the standard within NATO and strengthen European sovereignty.”
- You can read more details on the Naval Group website, the Exail website and the Belgian Ministry of Defence website