A Dutch court has rejected a German shipbuilder's protest against the Dutch Ministry of Defence's (MOD) selection of a French company for the construction of a new class of diesel-electric submarines for the Royal Netherlands Navy.
In its decision on Wednesday, July 24, the District Court of The Hague ruled in the case in which Germany's ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) objected to the provisional decision of the MOD to award the construction of four Orka-class submarines to France's Naval Group. The preliminary contract was awarded by the MOD to the Naval Group in March, and the subsequent award decision made in mid-June was widely supported in the Netherlands' House of Representatives with a large majority of votes.
In late March, TKMS filed an appeal with The Hague District Court protesting the awarding of the preliminary contract to the Naval Group. TKMS clarified that not only was the appeal "a professional business procedure in such publicly tendered major projects," it was also necessary, as certain questions related to the MOD's specific evaluation criteria have remained unanswered.
Meanwhile, the MOD expects the supply contract with the Naval Group will be signed after this summer. Before the signing takes place, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) must first be concluded between the Dutch and French governments. The MOU will stipulate that the Netherlands can use and maintain the purchased items independently of the Naval Group and the French government.
The submarines will be diesel-electric powered variants of the nuclear-powered Barracuda-class boats originally developed by the Naval Group for the French Navy. Each will have a displacement of 3,300 tonnes, a length of 82 metres, a hull diameter of 8.2 metres, a range of 15,000 nautical miles, space for up to 43 crewmembers, lithium-ion batteries, and torpedo and cruise missile armament.
The Orka-class submarines will replace the Royal Netherlands Navy's ageing Walrus-class boats, which were originally designed in the late 1980s. The new submarines will be named Orka, Zwaardvis ("Swordfish"), Barracuda, and Tijgerhaai ("Tiger Shark").