The Rotterdam class is a Landing Platform Dock or LPD amphibious warfare

Amphibious warfare

Amphibious warfare is the use of naval firepower, logistics and strategy to project military power ashore. In previous eras it stood as the primary method of delivering troops to non-contiguous enemy-held terrain...

 ship of the Royal Netherlands Navy

Royal Netherlands Navy

The Koninklijke Marine is the navy of the Netherlands. In the mid-17th century the Dutch Navy was the most powerful navy in the world and it played an active role in the wars of the Dutch Republic and later those of the Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands...

. It is equipped with a large helicopter deck

Helicopter deck

A helicopter 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...

 for helicopter

Helicopter

A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

 operations and a dock

Dock (maritime)

A dock is a human-made structure or group of structures involved in the handling of boats or ships, usually on or close to a shore.However, the exact meaning varies among different variants of the English language...

 for large landing craft

Landing craft

Landing craft are boats and seagoing vessels used to convey a landing force from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. Most renowned are those used to storm the beaches of Normandy, the Mediterranean, and many Pacific islands during WWII...

.

The lead ship is HNLMS Rotterdam, pennant number

Pennant number

In the modern Royal Navy, and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth, ships are identified by pennant numbers...

 L800. It masses 12,750-tons and was launched in 1997. The second ship of the class, HNLMS Johan de Witt (L801), (16,800-tons) was launched in February 2007. Johan de Witt is equipped with pod propulsion, as well as command and control facilities.

The Hr.Ms. Rotterdam also has a complete Class II hospital, an operation theatre and intensive care with 10 beds. During missions a surgical team can be placed on board permanently. The ship also has a desalination-system enabling it to changing seawater into drinking water.

The class was a joint design between the Netherlands and Spain. The two ships of the Spanish belonging to the Galicia class

Galicia class landing platform dock

The Galicia class is a class of two 13,900 t landing platform dock ships, belonging to the Spanish Navy. Built in Ferrol, their mission is to carry amphibious warfare by transporting the bulk of the Infantería de Marina....

 are the Galicia (commissioned in 1998) and the Castilla (2001). The United Kingdom's Bay class is also a close Rotterdam relation.

See also

• List of ship launches in 1997
• List of ship commissionings in 1998 HNLMS Johan de Witt

External links

• Naval-technology.com: Rotterdam-class