Most of the development and production of the new submarines for the Royal Netherlands Navy should take place in the Netherlands. That is the view of Shipyard Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding and several trade unions who have signed a covenant to this end. Damen hopes this will increase its chance of winning the upcoming submarine order.
The Dutch government will soon decide on the replacement of four submarines of the Walrus class. Damen is one of the candidates next to French Naval Group. By signing the covenant, Damen and trade unions FNV, CNV Vakmensen, De Unie and RMU Werknemers hope this will sway the government to let Damen build the vessels, thereby securing employment and knowledge development.
The current Walrus class is unique in its capacities and has been designed, built and very recently completely modernised in the Netherlands. With the proposed replacement of the Walrus Class, there is an opportunity to also design and build the future state-of-the-art submarines within the Dutch naval ecosystem. Right now, the Dutch naval construction industry is still well-positioned to build and maintain such vessels. Yet, to keep this knowledge intact, new orders are indispensable.
Expanding the Dutch Naval Engineering Cluster
The covenant’s aim is to maintain and expand the Dutch naval cluster’s knowledge and the employment this cluster offers. Efforts are being made to improve the link between education and business needs such as by retraining employees and offering traineeships and/or apprenticeships.
Over 2000 people are currently employed in the Dutch naval engineering cluster. The number of man-years involved in the construction and maintenance of the new submarines amounts to at least 15,000. Most of the employment is in vulnerable regions such as Zeeland, Twente and the northern part of Noord-Holland. For Damen, the project is expected to generate 6000 man-years of employment, of which approximately 3500 at higher vocational/university level and approximately 2600 at intermediate and lower vocational level.
Launching Customer
By being a launching customer for ships such as the replacement of the Walrus class submarines, the Royal Netherlands Navy enables the Dutch naval architecture cluster to develop new knowledge. It is important to note, however, that Damen’s bid for the new submarines was done in cooperation with international knowledge partner Sweden. So at least some of the work will go there.
