The ships are named after famous Dutch naval officers, the lead ship being named after Karel Doorman.
These multi-purpose frigates can be used in the anti-submarine, anti-aircraft or surface combat roles. Their armament reflects that.
Their primary surface armament consists of two quad launchers for the RGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missile, which has a range of 120 kilometers. Backing this up is a 76 mm Oto Melara gun, which has both anti-ship and anti-air capabilities.
Air defense is provided by the Sea Sparrow vertical launch system, which uses semi-active radar to find its target and has a range of 14 km. 16 VLS cells are mounted on the port external bulkhead of the hangar. A Goalkeeper system provides close-range air defense. It fires 30 mm rounds and can fire up to 4,000 rounds per minute, with a range of 200 meters to 3 km.
For anti submarine warfare, each ship is equipped with two twin torpedo launchers, firing Mark 46 torpedoes; and carries one Westland Lynx helicopter. The helicopter is also armed with 2 Mk 46 torpedoes, and carries dipping sonar and forward looking infrared (FLIR) systems.
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Builders: | Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding |
| Operators: |  Belgian Navy Chilean Navy Royal Netherlands Navy Portuguese Navy |
| Completed: | 8 |
| Active: | 8 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Karel Doorman class multi-purpose frigate |
| Displacement: | 2,800 tons standard; 3,320 tons full load |
| Length: | 401ft (122.3m) |
| Beam: | 47ft (14.4m) |
| Draught: | 20ft (6.1m) |
| Propulsion: | 2 Rolls Royce (Spey 1A) 16700 hp (12.45 MW) gas turbines 2 Stork-Werkspoor 4895 hp (3.650 MW) diesel engines |
| Speed: | 29 knots (54 km/h) |
| Complement: | 154 |
| Armament: | 1 Oto Melara 76 mm anti-air/anti-surface gun 1 Oerlikon 20 mm light cannon 1 Sea Sparrow Missile Vertical Launch System (VLS) 8 Harpoon Missiles 1 Goalkeeper (point defence guns) Mk. 46 Torpedoes |
| Armour: | none |
| Aircraft carried: | Chilean Navy: AS 532 Cougar, Portuguese Navy: Westland Super Lynx, Dutch & Belgian Navy: NH90 from 2010 onwards. |
| Aviation facilities: | helicopter hangar |
