Belgian Navy

Marine Component of the Belgian Army
Active 1831-1865: Royal Navy
1917-1927: Corps of Destroyers and Sailors
1939-1940: Naval Corps
1940-1946: Belgian Section, Royal Navy
1946-2002: Naval Force
2002-2007: Maritime Component
2007-present: Marine Component
Country Belgium
Size 1,600 personnel
2 frigates, 6 minehunters, 6 support vessels
Garrison/HQ Zeebrugge, Bruges, Ostend, Antwerp
Ship classes Karel Doorman class frigate
Tripartite class minehunter
Commanders
Commander Divisional Admiral Jean-Paul Robyns
Insignia
Ensign

The Marine Component (French: Composante marine, Dutch: Marinecomponent, German: Marinekomponente) of the Belgian Army, formerly the Belgian Naval Force, is the naval service of Belgium.

Contents

History

Early history

The Belgian Navy was created as the Marine Royale in 1831. This force has operated in various forms throughout Belgian history.

When after the Belgian Revolution, the country became independent in 1830, a Dutch squadron blocked the Scheldt estuarium. 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 Marshal of France Etienne Gérard, captured the citadel of Antwerp in 1832, the captured Dutch gun boats were pressed into Belgian service. In 1840 the Belgian government bought the schooner Louise Marie and in 1845 the brig Duc de Brabant. In 1865, the Belgian government discarded its navy and pursued a minimalistic naval policy. This meant that at the outbreak of World War I, Belgium had no navy.

The War caused this policy to change and in 1917 a Corps of Destroyers and Sailors was created. The Belgian naval personnel served onboard French mine sweepers and provided the artillerymen for Belgian merchant ships. The Treaty of Versailles allocated Belgium 11 torpedo boats and 26 mine sweepers. Because of budgetary reasons, Belgium again abolished its navy. 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 lasted barely a year until the German invasion of May 1940.

During World War II many members of this naval corps, together with Belgian fishermen and merchant sailors escaped to England 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-manned ships. From 1940 to 1946, the Belgian Section of the British Royal Navy manned two corvettes, (Buttercup and Godetia), a squadron of MMS mine sweepers and three patrol boats (Phrontis, Electra and Kernot). In 1946, Britain generously donated the ships (along with its crews) to Belgium to become the backbone of the new Belgian Navy.

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 meant cutbacks and crimping the Armed Forces. With regards to the Belgian navy these cutbacks meant that one Wielingen class frigate was stricken 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 Navy ceased to exist. The former Navy became the Belgium Naval Component (COMOPSNAV) of the Armed Forces; it is also called the Marine.[1]

On July 20, 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) currently still in service with the Belgian Navy, which in turn might be sold to Bulgaria. On December 21, 2005, the Dutch government sold the 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 it as the Drăzki ('The Bolds'). The country's government plans to put an order for a second ship of the Wandelaar class together with a minesweeper, both second-hand.

The current Commander of the Naval Component is Divisional Admiral Jean-Paul Robyns.

Mission

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/or from the Humans right and exercise the Belgian sovereignty in the maritime zones where the Navy is qualified, defend the lines maritime of communication, 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:

Flag Officers

There are currently five officers of flag rank in the Naval Component:[2]

Current Fleet List

Frigates

Karel Doorman class

Mine Hunters

Tripartite class

Support Vessels

Patrol Boat

Auxiliary Vessels

Former Fleet List

Belgian Navy ships since 1945:

Footnote

  1. ^ The former term 'Zeemacht' in Dutch, 'Force Navale' in French, is in both languages once again referred to by the term 'Marine' which does not indicate an independent force.
  2. ^ "Marinecomponent: Who's Who" (in Dutch). Defence Belgium. http://www.mil.be/navycomp/subject/index.asp?LAN=nl&ID=160&FILE=subjecttext&MENU=0&PAGE=1. Retrieved 2008-07-18. 

External links
Current navies in Europe
Sovereign
states
States with limited
recognition
  • Abkhazia
  • Kosovo
  • Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
  • Northern Cyprus
  • South Ossetia
  • Transnistria