A victory for the French arms industry. The Netherlands announced this Friday, March 15, that it had chosen the French Naval Group for the construction of four submarines, a project worth several billion euros, to the detriment in particular of the tandem between the Swedish Saab and the Dutch Damen.
“After a careful quotation process, Naval Group will build the new submarines” for the Netherlands, declared the Secretary of State for Defense, Christophe van der Maat, present in Helder, in the north of the country, where the largest naval base of the Dutch Navy is located. “They managed to provide a balanced, versatile and realistic offer. Dutch industry also has an important role to play, an important condition in the award process,” he added.
The competition pitted the French public group Naval Group, allied with the Dutch Royal IHC, the German thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) and the Swedish Saab which has formed an alliance with the Dutch shipbuilder Damen.
Four Barracuda-class submarines
This long process, which began in 2015, aims to replace the four Walrus-class submarines launched in the early 1990s, the first of which was withdrawn from service last fall so that its parts could be used to maintain the others.
The contract also includes an industrial cooperation agreement (ICA), aimed “at strengthening the Dutch defense technological and industrial base” according to the Ministry of Defense, even if the assembly of the submarines will be carried out in the Dutch shipyard. company selected. The first two submarines must enter service within ten years of signing the contract.
Naval Group’s victory marks the first export success of its Barracuda submarine, 12 examples of which had been sold to Australia before Canberra canceled the contract in favor of the Aukus partnership with London and Washington. A first Barracuda, the Suffren, equips the French Navy in a nuclear-powered version. The model intended for the Netherlands is with conventional diesel-electric propulsion and a little smaller, 3,000 tonnes compared to 4,500 tonnes.