HNLMS ''Johan de Witt'' () is the second of the

Royal Netherlands Navy The Royal Netherlands Navy (, ) is the Navy, maritime service branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. It traces its history to 8 January 1488, making it the List of navies, third-oldest navy in the world. During the 17th and early 18th centurie ...

. It is an improved design of , which was designed in conjunction between the Netherlands and Spain. The ship, displacing 16,800 tons, was launched on 13 May 2006. The motto of the ship is ''Ago Quod Ago'', translated as ''I do what I do''.

Design

Equipment

The ship is equipped with a large

helicopter deck A helicopter deck (or helo deck) is a helicopter pad on the deck of a ship, usually located on the stern and always clear of obstacles that would prove hazardous to a helicopter landing. In the United States Navy, it is commonly and properly refe ...

for helicopter operations and a dock for large

landing craft Landing craft are small and medium seagoing watercraft, such as boats and barges, used to convey a landing force (infantry and vehicles) from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. The term excludes landing ships, which are larger. ...

. It can carry six NH90 NFH helicopters or four CH-47F Chinook helicopters. It has a well dock for two

landing craft utility A Landing Craft Utility (LCU) is a type of boat used by amphibious forces to transport equipment and troops to the shore. They are capable of transporting tracked or wheeled vehicles and troops from amphibious assault ships to beachheads or pi ...

and it carries four davit-launched LCVPs. The dock is wide enough to support two

LCAC LCAC may refer to: Hovercraft * A generic term for an Air-cushioned landing craft, air cushioned landing craft, taken from US Navy designation "Landing Craft, Air Cushion". ** Landing Craft Air Cushion, a US Navy hull classification symbol for the ...

, but to allow for this, the centre barrier, that splits the dockwell in two, must be removed. The vessel has an extra deck with rooms for command staff to support a battalion size operation. The ship has a complete Role II hospital, including an operating theatre and intensive care facilities. A surgical team can be stationed on board. The ship also has a desalination system enabling it to convert seawater into drinking water. It is equipped with

pod propulsion An azimuth thruster is a configuration of marine propellers placed in pods that can be rotated to any horizontal angle (azimuth), making a rudder redundant. These give ships better maneuverability than a fixed propeller and rudder system. Type ...

enabling the ship to use dynamic positioning while sea basing.

Sensors and armament

The sensor suite consists of a Thales Netherlands Variant 2D Air and Surface surveillance radar, the Thales Scout Low Probability of Intercept Surface surveillance and tactical navigation radar and the Thales GateKeeper Electro-Optical warning system. When participating in high-risk operations ''Johan de Witt'' needs additional protection from

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...

s or

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

s. For protection against incoming anti-ship missiles or hostile aircraft and swarm attacks the ship has two

Goalkeeper CIWS The Goalkeeper CIWS is a Dutch close-in weapon system (CIWS) introduced in 1979. It is an autonomous and completely automatic weapon system for short-range defence of ships against highly maneuverable missiles, aircraft and fast-maneuvering surf ...

systems and 4-6 manual operated .50 Browning or

FN Mag The FN MAG (, , ) is a Belgian 7.62 mm calibre, 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun, designed in the early 1950s at Fabrique Nationale de Herstal, Fabrique Nationale (FN) by Ernest Vervier. It has been used by more than 80 countries and it h ...

machine guns

Operational history

''Johan de Witt''s home port is in

Den Helder Den Helder () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Den Helder occupies the northernmost point of the North Holland peninsula. It is home to the country's main naval base. From here the Royal TESO fe ...

. The ship has participated twice (2010 and 2013) in anti-piracy operations off the coast of

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

, where it successfully disrupted pirate activities and patrolled the coast with the landing craft functioning as forward operating bases. ''Johan de Witt'' also supported the locals with medical assistance and supplying food and water. In October 2015 the ship participated in the NATO exercise ''Trident Juncture'' held close to Spain. In 2016 ''Johan de Witt'' took part in a joint Dutch-British exercise called ''Cold Response''. Later that year she would participate in a joint German-Finnish-Swedish-Dutch exercise called ''BALTOPS''. After this exercise she returned to the Netherlands for maintenance that would last a year. In the autumn of 2018 the ship would participate in the NATO exercise ''Trident Juncture''. In September 2019 ''Johan de Witt'' and were sent to

the Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of ...

for humanitarian aid after the country was hit by

Hurricane Dorian Hurricane Dorian was an extremely powerful and catastrophic tropical cyclone, which became the most intense on record to strike The Bahamas. It is tied with the 1935 Labor Day hurricane for the strongest landfall in the Atlantic basin in term ...

. The ships loaded supplies like food, water and medicines at the island of

Sint Maarten Sint Maarten () is a Countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean region of North America. With a population of 58,477 as of June 2023 on an area of , it encompasses ...

before continuing to the Bahamas.

References

External links

Johan de Witt at defensie.nl
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johan de Witt (L801) Rotterdam-class landing platform docks Amphibious warfare vessels of the Royal Netherlands Navy 2006 ships Ships built by Damen Shipyards Galați