The Dutch, we have long known, always need to have one naval vessel named Karel Doorman. That the famed admiral was a badass is without question: "I attack, follow me” was a most awesome signal to send in the Battle of the Java Sea, even if that wasn’t quite the flag hoist. Death-riding daring was nothing new for the Royal Netherlands Navy back then, but in keeping with the innovation that we’ve seen in northern European navies lately, this newest Karel Doorman, is quite novel in several ways.
To take advantage of lower labor rates, her hull was built in Romania, and was then towed to the Netherlands, where she is now outfitting in Vlissingen. To be fair, the British are doing the same with their new Tide-class tankers, designed in Bath, but being built in South Korea by Daewoo. Not every country has the comparative advantage needed for a full range of shipyards, and it the interests of guarding their actual military-industrial strengths, few should try.
To economize on engineering hours, aspects of the underlying design were broadly based on that of the existing Rotterdam-class landing ships, themselves a variant of the Enforcer-type. The sensor suite will also be adopted from the Holland-class offshore patrol vessels. All the weapons are standard stuff: 30mm Goalkeeper, 30mm Marlin, and 12.7mm Hitrole guns. At least in the US, that degree of requirement restraint would actually be novel. Consider for a moment how much more smoothly the San Antonio program could have gone had the US Navy adopted more of the design features of preceding designs. Whatever, for example, was wrong with the damage control system on the Arleigh Burkes?
But perhaps most uniquely, Karel will be a multifunction vessel—a Joint Logistics Support Ship, the Navy is calling her. At roughly 28,000 tones full load, she certainly has the room for underway replenishment gear, a large vehicle deck, a steel beach stern, a flight deck suitable for two Chinooks, and a hangar bay for six more aircraft. Even more so than the smaller landing ships Rotterdam and the Johan de Witt, she’s almost a helicopter carrier.
Indeed, last year, a single Apache helicopter of Royal Netherlands Air Force 301 Squadron undertook trials on the Rotterdam. That followed the British Army’s embarkation of Apaches on HMS Ocean during the Libyan Civil War. The Army Air Corps flew five gunships from the carrier, claiming 107 kills in 49 sorties (See Pieter Bastiaans, "Dutch conduct Apache trials at sea," Defence Helicopter, May-June 2012, p. 5) For that matter, those WAH-64s were the only strike aircraft flying off any British ship in the Mediterranean. And until the Queen Elizabeth is commissioned, they will continue to be the whole shebang.
Even afterwards, with the right air cover from reasonably proximate land-based fighters, a helicopter carrier like the Ocean can accomplish a lot on her own. That, naturally, was the impetus for the Dutch experimentation recently. Today, four navies are operating Enforcer-type landing ships: those of the Netherlands (Rotterdam, Johan de Witt), Spain (Galicia, Castilla), Britain (Lyme Bay, Mounts Bay, Cardigan Bay), and Australia (Choules). But the JSS brings the displacement needed to undertake even more serious missions.
Last month, the Dutch Defense Ministry floated the idea that the Karel Doorman might be sold before completion. That idea has thankfully been ditched, as a bit more than a hundred million euros were found to plug the whole in her budget. Because whether with gunships, transports, or sub-hunters, or just offloading relief supplies, a small JSS can serve multiple functions, extending the political utility of any fleet. It’s an idea that more navies should consider—even the US Navy, as it tries to imagine how to afford those three hundred ships on its sequestered budget.
Very nice article! I enjoyed reading it.
Posted by: Sjoerd van Donk | 21 June 2018 at 09:33