Tripartite class minehunter - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Tripartite class is a class of mine warfare

Mine warfare

Mine warfare refers to the use of different types of explosive devices:*Land mine, a weight-triggered explosive device intended to maim or kill people or to destroy vehicles...

vessel used by the navies of Belgium

Belgian Navy

The Marine Component of the Belgian Army, formerly the Belgian Naval Force, is the naval service of Belgium.-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...

, France

French Navy

The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...

and the Netherlands

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...

, as well as Pakistan

Pakistan Navy

The Pakistan Navy is the naval warfare/service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. Pakistan's Navy is responsible for Pakistan's coastline along the Arabian Sea and the defense of important civilian harbors and military bases...

, Indonesia

Indonesian Navy

The role of the Indonesian Navy is to patrol of Indonesia's immense coastline, to ensure safeguard the territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zone , to protect Indonesia's maritime strategic interests, to protect the islands surrounded Indonesia and to defend against seaborne threats. The TNI...

, Latvia

Latvian Naval Forces

Latvian Naval Forces is a branch of the National Armed Forces tasked with conducting military and rescue operations at sea. Today, they are fully operational and successfully perform all the tasks entrusted to them. The NF perform mine and explosive sweeping on the Baltic Sea, as well as search...

, and Bulgaria

Bulgarian Navy

The Bulgarian Navy is the navy of Republic of Bulgaria and forms part of the Bulgarian Armed Forces. It has been largely overlooked in the reforms that Bulgaria had to go through in order to comply with NATO standards, mostly because of the great expense involved and the fact that naval assaults...

Description

A joint venture of the navies of France

French Navy

, Belgium

Belgian Navy

, and the Netherlands

Royal Netherlands Navy

, the Tripartite class of minehunter

Minehunter

Minehunters are mine countermeasure vessels that actively detect and destroy individual naval mines. Minesweepers, on the other hand, clear mined areas as a whole, without prior detection of mines...

s were conceived in the 1970s and built in the 1980s. France built the mine-hunting equipment, Belgium provided the electronics, and the Netherlands constructed the propulsion train. France and the Netherlands originally bought 15, with Belgium buying 10.

All three countries' Tripartite ships contribute at times to NATO's Standing Maritime MCM capability groups (SNMCMG1 or SNMCMG2).

France

("Éridan" class, Thales Group

Thales Group

The Thales Group is a French electronics company delivering information systems and services for the aerospace, defense, transportation and security markets...

is currently upgrading France's Tripartite minehunters)

M641 Éridan
M642 Cassiopée
M643 Andromède
M644 Pégase
M645 Orion
M646 Croix du Sud
M647 Aigle
M648 Lyre
M649 Persée (decommissioned in August 2009)
M650 Sagittaire
M651 Verseau (former Belgian M920 Iris) (decommissioned in February 2010)
M652 Céphée (former Belgian M919 Fuchsia)
M653 Capricorne (former Belgian M918 Dianthus)

Belgium

Originally 10 ships were built for the Belgian navy. All remaining Belgian vessels have undergone an extensive upgrade during 2004-2008 involving replacement of the anti-mine warfare equipment. Also called "CMT" for Chasseur de Mines Tripartite, all are named after flowers and are thus sometimes called the "Flower" class in international literature.

Currently in service:

Formerly:
M920 Iris, M919 Fuchsia and M918 Dianthus were sold to France and M922 Myosotis was sold to Bulgaria

Indonesia

("Pulau Rengat" class)

711 Pulau Rengat (first intended to be Dutch M864 Willemstad)
712 Pulau Rupat (first intended to be Dutch M863 Vlaardingen)

Latvia

M-04 Imanta (former Dutch M854 Harlingen)
M-05 Viesturs (former Dutch M855 Scheveningen)
M-06 Talivaldis (former Dutch M852 Dordrecht)
M-07 Visvaldis (former Dutch M851 Delfzijl)
M-08 Rusins (former Dutch M850 Alkmaar)

Netherlands

("Alkmaar" class)

M850 Alkmaar (no longer in service, sold to Latvia)
M851 Delfzijl (no longer in service, sold to Latvia)
M852 Dordrecht (no longer in service, sold to Latvia)
M853 Haarlem (out of commission sept 2011)
M854 Harlingen (no longer in service, sold to Latvia)
M855 Scheveningen (no longer in service, sold to Latvia)
M856 Maasluis (out of commission sept 2011)
M857 Makkum
M858 Middelburg (out of commission sept 2011)
M859 Hellevoetsluis (out of commission sept 2011)
M860 Schiedam
M861 Urk
M862 Zierikzee
M863 Vlaardingen
M864 Willemstad

Pakistan

("Munsif" class)

M166 Munsif (former French M650 Sagittaire) http://www.paknavy.gov.pk/mineh.htm
M163 Muhafiz (built in France, completed in Pakistan)
M164 Mujahid (built in Pakistan in 1998)

External links

Photos of Tripartites from NATO exercise
Belgian navy page with technical specifications
Dutch navy page about mine hunters (in Dutch) including a page on Alkmaar class
World Navies - list of ships in each navy

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