One of the first gunboats of the Marine RoyaleFrench and Belgian warships during the Rio Nuñez Incident in West Africa, 1849
The Belgian Navy was created as the Marine Royale (English: Royal Navy) on 15 January 1831.[5] The force has operated in various forms throughout Belgian history.
When the country became independent after the Belgian Revolution of 1830, a Dutch squadron blocked the Scheldtestuary. To deal with this threat the Belgian Congress ordered two brigantines to be built, which bore the names Congrès and Les Quatre Journées. After the French Army, led by MarshalCountGérard, captured the citadel of Antwerp in 1832, the captured Dutch gun boats were pressed into Belgian service. In 1840 the Belgian government bought the schoonerLouise Marie and in 1845 the brigDuc de Brabant. Louise Marie participated in the Rio Nuñez Incident in 1849. In 1862, the Belgian government discarded its navy and pursued a minimalistic naval policy.
Disbandment
In April 1862 the existing royal navy was disbanded as an economy measure. The navy's personnel were transferred to a "state navy force" manning small vessels and employed in non-military functions such as the provision of ferry services, inspection of incoming vessels and charting research. The need for a proper naval service to provide coastal and port defence was raised periodically but did not progress beyond the retention as a reserve of four lightly armed gunboats, moored in the Port of Antwerp and crewed by members of the Belgian Army's Engineering Corps.[6]
World War I
At the outbreak of World War I, Belgium had no navy (an impromptu force was assembled at the Battle for Lake Tanganyika) but the war caused this policy to change and a Corps of Destroyers and Sailors was created in 1917. The Belgian naval personnel served onboard French minesweepers and provided the artillerymen for Belgian merchant ships. The Treaty of Versailles allocated Belgium 11 torpedo boats and 26 minesweepers. For budgetary reasons, Belgium again abolished its navy in 1927.
World War II
In 1939, against the looming threat of a new war with Germany, Belgium once again resurrected its navy as the Naval Corps. This new navy, consisting mostly of small patrol vessels and coastal artillery units, lasted barely a year until the German invasion of May 1940. During the 18 days campaign, the trawler A4 evacuated much of the government's gold reserve to Britain, while several others helped at the Alliedevacuation at Dunkirk.[7]
During World War II many members of the Naval Corps, together with Belgian fishermen and merchant sailors, escaped to Britain with the explicit wish of fighting the German occupiers. The Royal Navy took advantage of this opportunity to enlist the Belgians into separate groups of more or less entirely Belgian-crewed ships. From 1940 to 1946, the Belgian Section of the British Royal Navy crewed two corvettes, (Buttercup and Godetia), a squadron of MMS minesweepers and three patrol boats (Phrontis[fr], Electra and Kernot). In 1946, Britain donated the ships to Belgium. These vessels became the backbone of the new Belgian Navy.
The Belgian Navy was expanded in the late 1940s and the 1950s with the transfer of former U.S., British, and Commonwealth warships. After Belgium became a member of NATO, the role of the Belgian Navy was to help secure the North Sea, the English Channel, and the Western Approaches in cooperation with other navies in northwestern Europe. The first major surface ships that Belgium received were six Algerine-class minesweepers from the United Kingdom. They also received the Agile and Adjutant minesweepers from the United States. Later developments occurred in the 1970s, when the natively designed Belgian Wielingen-class frigates were built, and in the 1980s when Belgium, France, and the Netherlands launched the Tripartite-class minehunters.[8]
Post-Cold War
In the beginning of the nineties, the end of the Cold War caused the Belgian government to restructure the Belgian Armed Forces in order to cope with the changed threats. This led to a reduction in the size of the Armed Forces. With regards to the Belgian navy, these cutbacks meant that one Wielingen-class frigate was taken out of service and that three Tripartite-class minehunters were sold to France. In 2002, the government decided to impose a "single structure" on the armed forces in which the independent Belgian Marine Royale ceased to exist. The former Navy became the Belgian Naval Component (COMOPSNAV) of the Armed Forces; it is also generally referred to as the Belgian Navy.
On 20 July 2005, the Belgian government decided to buy two of the remaining six Dutch M-class frigates to replace the two remaining frigates of the Wielingen class (Wielingen and Westdiep) at the time still in service with the Belgian Navy, which in turn were sold to Bulgaria. On 21 December 2005, the Dutch government sold Karel Doorman (F827) and Willem Van Der Zaan (F829) to Belgium. The two ships were sold for about 250 million Euros. These two M-class frigates entered service with the Belgian Navy where they were renamed Leopold I and Louise-Marie. In October 2005, the Wielingen-class frigate Wandelaar was officially handed over to the Bulgarian Navy, which christened the ship as Drăzki ('The Bolds'). The remaining ships of the class were transferred to Bulgaria as well, after completing modernization in Belgium. A Tripartite-class minehunter, Myosotis, which was renamed Tsibar was transferred to Bulgaria soon after.
In February 2013 it was announced that Belgium had ordered two 52-metre (171ft) patrol vessels from the French shipyard SOCARENAM, to be delivered within two years. Both were received, P901 Castor in 2014 and P902 Pollux in early 2015. The two vessels are to remain in service until 2044–2045.[9]
In times of crisis and war the Belgian Navy will manage, with the support of its allies, the crises rising from the infringements to the principles of International law and from the Humans right and exercise the Belgian sovereignty in the maritime zones where the Belgian Navy is qualified, defend the underwater communication lines, main roads and allied, and protect the ports against any air, surface or underwater attack.
In times of peace the Belgian Navy has the following roles:
To ensure the presence of Belgium at sea.
To give a support for our diplomacy and our foreign trade.
Technical and military collaboration with the allied countries.
Participation in humane actions.
Contribute to the nation in the maritime zones for which Belgium is responsible:
Contribution to oceanographic search.
Control of fishing
Contribution to the control of pollution at sea.
Participation in the plan of assistance in territorial waters
Support for the customs and police operations
Detection of wrecks of boats.
Participation in rescues at sea.
Contribution to the training of the commercial naval officers
Control of territorial waters and the exclusive economic zone.
If necessary, opening of the centre of hyperbare medicine to the population.
Destruction of explosive devices at sea
Preparation with the tasks to be carried out in times of crisis and war.
Contribution to dissuasion at sea by the means of permanent allied squadrons.
Note: 1 Tripartite class ship donated to Ukraine in June 2025. The Narcis underwent full maintenance before being donated. Belgium provided basic training and the Netherlands offered on-the-job training for the crews.[16]
M926 Mechelen (converted to research ship – decommissioned)
M927 Spa (converted to munition transport and renumbered A963 – decommissioned and sold to a Dutch foundation, re-commissioned as museum ship AMS60 Bernisse)
M928 Stavelot (decommissioned 1987)
M929 Heist (decommissioned 1992)
M930 Rochefort (decommissioned 1992)
M931 Knokke (decommissioned 1976)
M932 Nieuwpoort (decommissioned 1991)
M933 Koksijde (decommissioned 1991)
M934 Verviers (ex USN MSC259 – converted to minehunter 1972 – decommissioned 1988)
M935 Veurne (ex USN MSC260 – converted to minehunter 1972 – decommissioned 1987)
MSI-class inshore minesweepers (similar to the British Ham or Ley classes)
M470 Temse (sold to South Korea 1970)
M471 Hasselt (decommissioned 1989; transferred to Belgian Sea Cadet Corps in 1993)
M472 Kortrijk (decommissioned 1989)
M473 Lokeren (decommissioned 1987)
M474 Turnhout (decommissioned 1991)
M475 Tongeren (decommissioned 1991)
M476 Merksem (decommissioned 1992)
M477 Oudenaarde (decommissioned 1989; stored on dry land in Antwerp)
M478 Herstal (decommissioned 1991)
M479 Huy (decommissioned 1990)
M480 Seraing (decommissioned 1990)
M481 Tournai (sold to South Korea 1970)
M482 Visé (decommissioned 1991)
M483 Ougrée (decommissioned 1992; she is in civilian ownership on the River Medway in Chatham, Kent, England (2007))
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Belgium 
Belgian Armed Forces 
