The Royal New Zealand Navy’s new Multi Role Vessel (MRV) was launched on Saturday (local time) at the Merwede shipyard in Rotterdam.
Secretary of Defence Graham Fortune and the Deputy Chief of Navy, Commodore Jack Steer attended the launch.
The 9000-tonne MRV is the first of seven ships being built under the Ministry of Defence’s $500 million Project Protector. Two Offshore Patrol Vessels are being built in Melbourne, and four Inshore Patrol Vessels are being built in Whangarei.
Defence Minister Phil Goff, who visited the shipyards last weekend, said the speed with which the MRV was being built was impressive, with work having been contracted to four other shipyards in Rotterdam.
“As result, the MRV is being built at an average of 20 tonnes per day and five months later it is ready for launch – on schedule and within budget.”
The MRV’s superstructure was fitted as one complete block the day after the launch. Once the fit-out and sea trials are complete in late July, it will sail for Melbourne to be fitted with armaments and military communications systems. Final trials will then be conducted before Defence accepts the ship in December.
The MRV has a maximum speed of 19 knots, and is capable of transporting the Army’s Light Armoured Vehicles and Light Operational Vehicles, as well as 250 troops, one Seasprite and four NH90 helicopters. It has two 60-tonne landing craft for situations where port facilities are not available.
Mr Goff said all seven of the Project Protector ships would make an important contribution to New Zealand’s security and economic interests, as well increasing our capacity to assist in disaster relief in the Pacific.
“They will be operated by the Navy but they will undertake work for a range of government departments as part of a multi-agency approach to protecting our borders,” Mr Goff said.
By: Ja Worsley - 1st March 2006 at 01:44
I stand corrected, and yes I must have read the website wrong, sorry guys I’ve not been concerntraiting on my work lately, women are to blame (not that they are bad, just that they distract me to no end and my work suffers).
By: Wanshan - 28th February 2006 at 19:41
Schelde Shipbuilding of the Royal Schelde Company, based in Vlissingen in the Netherlands, has built the Rotterdam class Landing Platform Dock (LPD) ship for the Royal Netherlands Navy. The Royal Schelde Company were awarded the contract to build Hr Ms Rotterdam in April 1993 and the ship was launched in 1997. The Royal Netherlands Navy has plans to order a second Rotterdam Class LPD, Hr Ms Johan de Witt, to enter service in 2007. The new vessel will be equipped with command and control facilities for a Combined Joint Task Force.
The Rotterdam LPD was the result of a joint design project between the Netherlands and Spain. Two ships, the Galicia (commissioned in 1998) and the Castilia (2001), were built for the Spanish Navy by Bazan (now Navantia).
http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/rotterdam/
The winning Swan Hunter LSD(A) design was based on Royal Schelde’s Enforcer family, a tailored variant of the Royal Netherlands Navy landing platform dock HrMs Rotterdam. Swan Hunter was to be the lead yard and construction and final assembly would be undertaken at Wallsend (Govan for the BAE Marine ships), but Royal Schelde would provide design and naval architecture services.
Due to capacity limitations, Swan Hunters have subcontracted some steel fabrication work (the bow section) to the Dutch yard Schelde Shipbuilding, this is much to BAE’s annoyance – they claim that they could have done the work just as cheaply at their Govan yard and that this would have reduced recent redundancies.
By: sealordlawrence - 28th February 2006 at 15:38
Looks like an ingenious solution to a multitude of requirements, very impressive.
By: Arabella-Cox - 28th February 2006 at 13:53
Well Swan Hunter are claiming it and they launched it according to that site!
You must have misunderstood that website.
By: Ja Worsley - 28th February 2006 at 13:43
Well Swan Hunter are claiming it and they launched it according to that site!
By: pred - 28th February 2006 at 10:31
All of this class:
Royal Netherlands Navy: Rotterdam and modified vessel Johan de Witt > Schelde, Netherlands
Spanish Navy: Galicia and Castilia > Navantia (formerly Bazan/Izar)
Royal Navy: four modified vessels under LSD(A) project,
Largs and Lyme Bay > Swan Hunter (delayed and over budget)
Mounts Bay and Cardigan Bay > BAE Systems (Govan) third of class became first to be commissioned in December 2005
The New Zealand MRV is based on commercial Ro-Ro design in service in Ireland (?) also built by Merwede
By: Arabella-Cox - 28th February 2006 at 10:01
No mate, the Rotterdam is a bigger ship and built by Swan Hunter, this is built by the Dutch, Merwede shipyard in Rotterdam.
Huh? Surely Rotterdam was built by Schelde?
By: Ja Worsley - 28th February 2006 at 08:05
No mate, the Rotterdam is a bigger ship and built by Swan Hunter, this is built by the Dutch, Merwede shipyard in Rotterdam.
Here’s a link to info about HRMS Rotterdam and the Bay Class ships that are being built by Swan Hunter in England
By: Super Nimrod - 28th February 2006 at 07:53
It looks very similar to the Dutch HRMS Rotterdam. Is it in fact the same design ?
By: Ja Worsley - 28th February 2006 at 06:56
I can’t wait to see the entire fleet active
By: Arabella-Cox - 28th February 2006 at 05:47
This semi-LPD will be a welcome addition to the RNZN.
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February 28, 2006 at 4:12 am