Manuela Schwesig, the Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, visited the Dutch naval shipyard Damen Naval in Vlissingen on March 11, 2024 as part of a delegation trip from the German Federal Council. She found out about the maritime industry in the Netherlands and German-Dutch cooperation in the field of shipbuilding and armaments technology.
She paid particular attention to the F 126 frigate project. The Peene shipyard, Wolgast, is one of the three shipyards where the future frigates of the German Navy will be built in her state. According to a press release from Damen Naval, Ms. Schwesig was very interested in everything she saw in Vlissingen. “We are pleased about the close cooperation between Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding and the Lürssen Group in the construction of the new frigates for the German Navy. This order will secure important industrial jobs at the Peene shipyard in Wolgast over the next few years. We are interested in further expanding the cooperation between Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the Netherlands in the maritime area in the coming years.”
The Dutch shipyard was particularly keen to give Ms Schwesig a look behind the scenes. The visitor should be shown what happened between the award of the contract to build the four F126 frigates in June 2020 and the start of firing of the first frigate in December 2023. And everything that has to happen so that the aft ships to be built in Wolgast can become a finished multi-mission platform, which will be the frigate F126. It is not necessarily obvious that the draft prepared for a tender needs to be trimmed to the final ship design. Engineers and designers have to plan out the details. Loops often occur when technical conditions change due to the selection of components (e.g. weapon systems). If Damen also wants to realize the lion's share of the added value in Germany as a general contractor, meaning that German subcontractors come into play, the threads for order management and project control come together in Vlissingen.
In addition to the German frigate project F126, the Combat Support Ship for the Royal Netherlands Navy, the Belgian-Dutch joint project of anti-submarine warfare frigates and, since November 2023, a multi-purpose ship for the Portuguese Navy are in Damen Naval's order book. At the beginning of March, the Dutch Ministry of Defense announced two naval shipbuilding projects that are expected to be awarded nationally (ESUT reported). Damen Naval is a promising candidate.
The visit to Vlissingen can be seen as an extraordinary event, as it is the first time that a Federal Council President has visited a naval shipbuilding yard, especially abroad.
Federal Council President Manuela Schwesig is on an official visit to the Netherlands from March 9th to 11th, 2024. She met members of both chambers of the Dutch Parliament, was a guest at a dinner hosted by King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima and held talks with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. In addition to maritime security concerns, other topics such as European integration, climate policy, digitalization, education and culture were also discussed during the Federal Council President's visit to the Netherlands. Schwesig took part in the opening of the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam.
In her capacity as Prime Minister, Schwesig will be accompanied by a business delegation from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which, according to the Schwerin state government, wants to make new contacts, particularly in the areas of maritime economy, ports, circular economy and bioeconomy.
Hans Uwe Mergener