History | |
---|---|
Belgium | |
Name | Narcis |
Namesake | Narcissus |
Builder | Mercantile-Belyard Shipyard, Rupelmonde |
Laid down | 30 March 1990 |
Launched | 27 September 1990 |
Christened | 14 March 1991 |
Commissioned | 30 March 1991 |
Identification |
|
Status | in active service |
Badge | |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Tripartite-class minehunter |
Displacement |
|
Length | 51.5 m (169 ft) |
Beam | 8.96 m (29.4 ft) |
Height | 18.5 m (61 ft) |
Draught | 3.6 m (12 ft) |
Propulsion |
|
Speed | 15 knots (28 km/h) |
Range | 3,000 nautical miles (5,600 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h) |
Boats & landing craft carried |
|
Complement | 4 officers, 15 non-commissioned officers, 17 sailors |
Sensors and processing systems |
|
Armament | 3 × 12.7 mm machine guns |
Narcis (M923) is a Tripartite-class minehunter of the Belgian Naval Component, launched in 1990, at the Mercantile-Belyard shipyard in Rupelmonde and christened by Mrs. Lafosse-De Backer, the wife of the then Mayor of Mons, on 14 March 1991. The patronage of Narcis was accepted by the city of Mons. It was the ninth of the Belgian Tripartite-class minehunters. The Belgian government chose to deploy the ship as part of its involvement with enforcing the Libyan no-fly zone. [1]
In 2024, during the Russo-Ukrainian war, it was announced that Narcis will be donated to Ukraine at some time in the future. The ship will undergo full maintenance before donation. In total 3 Tripartite class ships were announced (as of 2024) to be donated to Ukraine. Belgium will provide basic training and the Netherlands offers on-the-job training for the crews. [2]
The Sandown class is a class of fifteen minehunters built primarily for the Royal Navy by Vosper Thornycroft. The Sandown class also serve with the Royal Saudi Navy, the Estonian Navy, and the Ukrainian Navy. The first vessel was commissioned into Royal Navy service on 9 June 1989 and all the British ships were named after coastal towns and cities. Although the class had a primary mine countermeasures role, they have had a secondary role as offshore patrol vessels. As of early 2024, only one vessel of the class remains in active service with the Royal Navy.
Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 (SNMCMG1) is a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) standing mine countermeasures immediate reaction force. Its role is to provide NATO with an immediate operational response capability.
The Belgian Navy, officially the Naval Component of the Belgian Armed Forces, is the naval service of Belgium.
The Estonian Navy are the unified naval forces among the Estonian Defence Forces.
The Osprey class are a series of coastal minehunters designed to find, classify, and destroy moored and bottom naval mines from vital waterways.
The Tripartite class is a class of minehunters developed from an agreement between the navies of Belgium, France and the Netherlands. A total of 35 ships were constructed for the three navies. The class was constructed in the 1980s–1990s in all three countries, using a mix of minehunting, electrical and propulsion systems from the three member nations. In France, where they are known as the Éridan class they are primarily used as minehunters, but have been used for minesweeping and ammunition transport in Belgium and the Netherlands, where the Tripartites are known as the Alkmaar class.
HMS Grimsby was a Sandown-class minehunter of the British Royal Navy, serving from 1999–2022, and the second ship to bear the name.
HMS Shoreham was a Sandown-class minehunter of the British Royal Navy. She was the fifth vessel to bear the name. From 2018 to 2021, Shoreham was deployed at UKNSF Bahrain together with three other mine countermeasures ships as part of 9 Mine Countermeasures Squadron on Operation Kipion. In 2022 she was decommissioned and was transferred to Ukraine.
The Iveco LMV is a 4WD tactical vehicle developed by Iveco, and in service with several countries. After its adoption by the Italian Army as the Veicolo-Tattico-Leggero-Multiruolo (VTLM) Lince, it won the Future Command and Liaison Vehicle (FCLV) competition of the British Army as the Panther, but the fleet was put up for sale in 2018.
PNS Munsif (M166) is the lead ship of the Munsif-class minehunter currently in service with the Pakistan Navy.
The M50 series protective mask, officially known as the Joint Service General Purpose Mask, is a lightweight, protective mask system consisting of the mask, a mask carrier, and additional accessories. It was adopted by the U.S. military in 2006 and is manufactured by Avon Rubber, the rubber-producing department of Avon Protection. There are two variants, the M50, for ground and shipboard use, and the M51, for ground vehicle use.
Operation Unified Protector was a NATO operation in 2011 enforcing United Nations Security Council resolutions 1970 and 1973 concerning the Libyan Civil War and adopted on 26 February and 17 March 2011, respectively. These resolutions imposed sanctions on key members of the Gaddafi government and authorized NATO to implement an arms embargo, a no-fly zone and to use all means necessary, short of foreign occupation, to protect Libyan civilians and civilian populated areas.
The Alkmaar class is a ship class of fifteen minehunters that were built in the Netherlands for the Royal Netherlands Navy. They are based on the design of the Tripartite class, which was developed by a collaborative effort between the Netherlands, Belgium and France, and replaced the minesweepers and minehunters of the Dokkum class.
This article represents the structure of the Belgian Armed Forces as of May 2020:
The Netherlands and Belgium are doing a joint procurement for the replacements of the Tripartite-class/Alkmaar-class minehunters. Each of the two countries is procuring six new mine countermeasure (MCM) vessels, which makes for a total of 12 MCM ships. The new MCM ships, developed by Naval Group, will include a range of unmanned systems including unmanned surface, aerial and underwater vehicles alongside towed sonars and mine identification and neutralization ROVs.