In August, a commander and a “made in Nederland” frigate for Atalanta. The 2nd Chamber gives the green light
The Dutch government has obtained the formal agreement of the second Chamber (the assembly of the Netherlands) to approve its participation in "Atalanta". The Netherlands had been participating, since the end of March, in NATO's "Allied Protector" operation with a frigate: the "Hr. Ms. De Zeven Provincien" (F-802). She is returning to port and should be docked on July 17. At the beginning of August they will send a new frigate, the "Hr Ms Evertsen" (F-805) - this time in the framework of Atalanta - which will leave its home port "Den Helder", on August 2 to arrive in the region approximately 10 days later.
A new commander for Atalanta. It is a Dutch commander, Commander Pieter Bindt, who will lead the operation from August 13, then taking over from his Spanish counterpart. Bindt is an experienced senior officer. He is, since 2007, the "NLMARFOR", the operations commander of the Dutch maritime force. Born in 1959, after a stint at the KIM - Koninklijke Instituut voor de Marine (the Royal Institute of the Navy), he served in the submarines, then as first officer of the "Hr. Ms. Tjerk Hiddes" (1996 -1997) before taking command (2000-2001). After a period as a naval planner at the Ministry of Defence, he took command of the support ship "Hr. Ms. Rotterdam" (A836) (May 2004 -
January 2007), then took command "NLMARFOR".
The Dutch frigate for Atalanta. The "Hr Ms Evertsen" frigate will navigate in an area and for missions that do not
are not entirely unknown to her since she provided support for the WFP boats from March to June 2008 (bilaterally) (*). This frigate is of the same class as the "Hr. Ms. De Zeven Provinciën" or the "De Ruyter" (F-804) and recently left the Dutch shipyards (2001 with commissioning in 2005). She weighs 6.050 tons, measures 144 m by 17 m (at the widest), can move at a speed of 30 knots. It can accommodate a command device and carries a Lynx helicopter (NH-90). Its armament consists of a 127 mm Oto-Breda cannon, a launch system
vertical Mk41 (with ESSSM and SM), Harpoon missiles, Goalkeeper multi-tube artillery systems,
Oerlikon 20 mm machine guns, ... (description in French on Sea and Navy).
(*) The support missions of the PAM were set up on French initiative and provided on a rotating basis (if I remember correctly) by the French, Dutch, Danish and Canadian navies.
