In an effort to ease maintenance, the Royal Netherlands Navy’s four Walrus class SSKs will soon be modified with composite dismountable outer hulls panels, MT was told during NIDV 2015. Under the contract that has been awarded by the Royal Netherlands Navy Maintenance Agency to Nevesbu, Solico is responsible for the project’s composite engineering while Iv-Infra has been subcontracted for conducting 3D scanning of the submarines’ hulls. Officials from Solico which is short for Solutions in Composites, indicated that by now they have engineered a hull panel design that has the flexibility to overcome configuration differences that are known to exist between the four subs.
All four Walrus class SSKs are planned to undergo a service life extension programme that will keep them in service until at least 2025. By then new submarines are expected to enter service with the Dutch navy although this very much depends on whether adequate funding to procure a follow on class of ships will soon be allocated. The first submarine to be inducted into the upgrade programme, HNLMS Zeeleeuw, is slated for redelivery to the navy this year. As a decision on which company will manufacture the composite panels still needs to be made, this particular ship will initially not receive the new dismountable outer hull panels and will have to be retrofitted at a later stage. However, the other three ships of the Walrus class are expected to be fitted with the composite panels when in dock for the service life extension programme with HNLMS Dolfijn to be the first ship to feature them.
In addition to the Walrus class programme, Solico is also involved in other defence related acivities. Recent projects include engineering jobs connected to the Fast Raiding Interception and Special Forces Craft (FRISC) and Tripartite class (or Alkmaar class as the Dutch call them) MCM vessels that are used by the Dutch naval forces.
Pieter Bastiaans