The Royal Netherlands Navy has officially taken delivery of its first mine countermeasure ship under the joint Belgian-Dutch Replacement Mine Countermeasures (rMCM) program.
The multinational effort includes 12 vessels overall: six Vlissingen-class ships for the Netherlands and six City-class vessels for Belgium. All are scheduled to become operational by 2030, replacing the two countries’ legacy minehunting fleets.
While Vlissingen marks the Netherlands’ first ship under the program, it is the second vessel delivered in total, following the Belgian Navy’s Oostende (M940), which was handed over in November 2025.
Program Overview and Capabilities
The rMCM program was awarded in 2019 to Belgium Naval & Robotics, a consortium bringing together France’s Naval Group and Exail.
The ships are equipped to deploy advanced unmanned systems provided by Exail, including two Inspector 125 uncrewed surface vehicles and three A-18 autonomous underwater vehicles. They also carry two Saab V200 Skeldar unmanned aerial vehicles.
A key feature of the vessels is an integrated robotic system capable of conducting mine detection, classification, identification, and neutralization operations.
Each ship measures 82.6 meters long and 17 meters wide, with space for 63 crew members. Displacing 2,800 tons, the vessels can achieve speeds of up to 15.3 knots and have an operational range of approximately 3,500 nautical miles.
Naval Group leads the vessel design, while Exail manages the unmanned systems package and the integration, testing, and commissioning of the mission system. Ship construction and assembly are performed by Piriou, under the project oversight of Kership, a joint venture between Naval Group and Piriou.
In 2023, France joined Belgium and the Netherlands in signing a trilateral mine warfare cooperation agreement. Under this arrangement, France will not procure rMCM vessels but will instead adopt elements of the design and associated technologies for its own SLAM-F mine warfare mothership program.
