French Shipyard Launches Third Patrol Vessel for Belgian Navy

On April 2, 2026, French shipbuilder SOCARENAM launched the Castor-class coastal patrol vessel BNS Vega (P-903) for the Belgian Navy. This is the third ship-in-class after Castor and Pollux, launched about a decade earlier. After launch, the vessel was floated out of the dry dock to commence the dockside fitting-out phase. During this stage, construction of the hull, the aluminum superstructure, and various mechanical and structural components is completed. Major propulsion elements, including the engines, gearboxes, and propeller shafts, are already installed on board. The decision to commission a third patrol vessel was approved in early 2024 during the tenure of then Defence Minister Ludivine Dedonder. My story for Naval News, here.

Castor class coastal patrol vessels of the Belgian Navy (plus PHOTO GALLERY #36)

Written by D-Mitch

The two coastal patrol vessels of the Belgian Navy

The Belgian Navy, officially the Belgian Maritime Component (Marinecomponent) of the Belgian Armed Forces, provides the maritime component of Belgium’s defence capabilities. The Naval Component of the Belgian Armed Forces consists currently of two frigates, five mine hunters, two offshore patrol vessels, one command and support ship and one oceanographic ship, all located in the Belgian naval base in Zeebrugge. The Navy also operates a sail training ship, a number of tugs and a large number of rigid-hulled inflatable boats (RHIBs), the majority of them carried by the naval units. It is a small but modern and very capable naval force and will be even more capable in the future thanks to two major projects which will provide six new multi-mission large minehunters and two multi-mission frigates. In this article we will analyze the patrol boats.

FLEETS #16: Combined Naval Fleets of the Royal Netherlands Navy and Belgian Navy and the Admiral Benelux (ABNL)

The flag of ABNL

The Dutch and Belgian Navies have been working together since 1948. In that year, the two countries agreed that their navies would operate under single command during times of war. The Admiral Benelux (ABNL) is the Commanding Officer of the combined military staff of the Royal Netherlands Navy and the Naval Component of the Belgian Armed Forces. The Benelux union, is the politico-economic union of three neighbouring states: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The position of ABNL, a result of developing naval cooperation between the Royal Netherlands Navy and the Belgian Navy, was created together with the combination of the Staffs of the two contributing navies on March 28, 1995 in the BENESAM Accord (from the Belgisch-Nederlandse Samenwerking, English: Netherlands Cooperation Accord). This cooperation was first geared at mutual battlefield cooperation and later at mutual defense in the Cold War as part of NATO's Allied Command Channel. After the end of the Cold War the focus of the Dutch-Belgian cooperation turned more and more to the efficient use of equipment and personnel (also driven by cutbacks in military spending after the collapse of the Soviet Union). The ABNL is responsible for the combined operations of the Dutch and Belgian Navies and can be tasked with the responsibility for the operational readiness and deployment of the combined fleets in joint operations, both in war- and peacetime operations. Most of all the ABNL is responsible for the efficient use of joint material and personnel and oversees the joint training programs of the two navies. That is the reason why the two navies use the same types of ships and helicopters. Recently, the two countries signed an agreement to replace their four (4) modernized Karel Doorman class frigates with new vessels under a joint programme as well as their twelve (12) Tripartite class mine countermeasure vessels with new ones (source).

FLEETS #9: Royal Australian Navy, Belgian Navy and Royal Canadian Navy today

Written by D-Mitch

This is the fifth article about various countries' navies today. In these articles, I briefly describe a country's naval fleet by reporting the ships in each type/category of warships and by providing a nice image where all the types of warships are illustrated and the units of its class are reported. I include the vessels that will enter in service this year and I have excluded those that are about to be decommissioned. I deliberately excluded many classes of auxiliary ships; those that they have "0" defence capacity and those that have secondary roles such as hydrographic survey ships, tugs, depollution vessels and training ships.

Karel Doorman (M) class frigates of the Portuguese Navy, Chilean Navy, Royal Netherlands Navy and Belgian Navy

Written by D-Mitch

Modernized frigate Van Spejik
Photo: Willem Harlaar

Frigate Bartolomeu_Dias
Photo: Jimmy C. Pan, US Navy

The Karel Doorman class is a class of eight (8) frigates built by Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding, the former Royal Schelde Dockyard, for the Royal Netherlands Navy (Koninklijke Marine) and they were commissioned in the period 1991-1995.  International interest in the M-frigates as well as changes in the Royal Netherlands Navy prompted the sale of two frigates each to Chile, Belgium and Portugal. Therefore, in 2004, Tjerk Hiddes and Abraham van der Hulst were sold to Chilean Navy (Armada de Chile) and renamed Almirante Riveros and Blanco Encalada respectively. In 2005, Karel Doorman and Willem van der Zaan were sold to Belgian Navy - Belgian Naval Component (Dutch: Marinecomponent, French: Composante marine, German: Marinekomponente) and renamed Leopold I and Louise-Marie respectively. The next year, Portuguese Navy (Marinha Portuguesa) purchased two vessels of the class, Van Nes and Van Galen which renamed Bartolomeu Dias and Francisco de Almeida respectively. The Dutch together with the Belgians decided to upgrade their frigates by rebuilding both hangar and helicopter deck to accommodate the NH-90 helicopter as well as to replace the forward mast for fitting a new phased array surface search radar and an electro-optical surveillance system. The Dutch and Belgian frigates followed also an extensive overhaul and Service Life Extension Programs (SLEP) to their equipment. These will be referred as the Karel Doorman Mod. (modernized) frigates to be distinguished from the non-modernized ones. Note that in 2018 the Portuguese Navy decided to modernize its two Karel Doorman class frigates (Mid-life update), the first frigate started modernization in 2018 and being completed by 2020, the second frigate will start modernizing in 2020 and will be completed by 2022.