On March 15, 2024, at the Dutch naval base Den Helder, Dutch Defense Minister Christoph van der Maat officially announced the selection of the large non-nuclear submarine Barracuda project submitted by the French shipbuilding association Naval Group in a tender for the construction of four new submarines for the Dutch Navy. The contract for the supply of boats will be signed after the approval of the results of the tender in the House of Representatives of the Dutch Parliament.
Image of the non-nuclear submarine of the Barracuda project of the French shipbuilding association Naval Group (c) Naval Group
Since 2014, the Dutch Ministry of Defense has been implementing a competitive program for the purchase of four large non-nuclear submarines to replace four Walrus-type diesel-electric submarines built in the early 1990s in the Dutch Navy (the Walrus lead submarine was withdrawn from the fleet in October 2023). In 2019, three applicants were selected in the tender: the French association Naval Group in partnership with the Dutch company Royal IHC with the Barracuda non-nuclear submarine project, a consortium of the Swedish Saab AB group and the Dutch shipbuilding association Damen Shipyards Group with the C718 submarine project, which is an enlarged version of the A26 submarines currently under construction for the Swedish Navy, and the German shipbuilding association ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) with an enlarged version of the submarine of the German-Norwegian 212CD project. In November 2022, they sent out an official request for proposals, which were submitted in July 2023. As a result, the final choice was made in favor of the French project.
The selected project is another version of a non-nuclear submarine based on the French nuclear submarine of the Barracuda project and was previously known as the Barracuda Shortfin. The characteristics of the Dutch-selected version of the project are not reported, but apparently it is the largest in terms of dimensions (length 82 m) and tonnage (surface displacement more than 3,300 tons) of the three competitive options. Presumably, the boats will not be equipped with an air-independent power plant, but will use lithium-ion batteries. The boats will be equipped with cruise missiles.
Due to the closure in 1996 of the Dutch shipyard Rotterdam Droogdok Maatschappij (RDM), which built submarines for the Dutch navy, the Netherlands lost the capabilities of the national submarine shipbuilding. As a result, all four new submarines will be built by the Naval Group in France at its arsenal in Cherbourg. Although in this program, the Naval Group acts in partnership with the Dutch company Royal IHC, specializing in the construction of vessels to support offshore oil and gas fields and technical fleet vessels, however, as can be understood, it will only play the role of a subcontractor for construction, and then carry out maintenance of these submarines, for which it is expected to sign simultaneously with the contract Industrial Cooperation Agreement (ICA). The total cost of the four-boat construction program is now tentatively estimated at 5.6 billion euros.
It has been announced that the new submarines of the Dutch Navy will be designated as the Orka type ("Killer Whale") and will be named Orka, Zwaardvis, Barracuda and Tijgerhaai. The names Zwaardvis ("Swordfish") and Tijgerhaai ("Tiger Shark") are traditional for the Dutch navy and were used, among other things, on two Zwaardvis-type submarines built in the early 1970s, while Orka and Barracuda are used for Dutch submarines for the first time.
The first two Orka-type submarines must be delivered within 10 years from the date of signing the contract, and the Dutch media call the dates 2034 and 2037. The other two boats will be delivered later. This will force the Dutch Navy to extend the service life of the last two Walrus-class submarines until the end of the 2030s.
Image of the non-nuclear submarine of the Barracuda project of the French shipbuilding association Naval Group (c) Ministry of Defense of the Netherlands
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Image of a non-nuclear submarine of the Barracuda project of the French shipbuilding association Naval Group (in the foreground) and a Dutch Navy submarine of the Walrus type (in the background) (c) Naval Group
Video (from) Naval News :