- Aviation Week – Yesterday’s engagement between a suspect dhow and the Royal Netherlands Navy landing ship dock Hr.Ms. Rotterdam was an uneven fight, despite sustained fire by suspected pirates.

- Aviation Week – The Royal Netherlands Navy (RNN) landing platform dock Hr. Ms. Rotterdam left its home port of Den Helder yesterday to participate in NATO’s Operation Ocean Shield counterpiracy mission off the coast of Somalia.

- Defense Technology International – The Dutch parliament yesterday approved reinforcements of NATO’s Operation Ocean Shield counterpiracy mission while delaying a decision to expand the EU’s parallel Operation Atalanta until after parliamentary elections in September.

- Defense Technology International – The Royal Netherlands Navy submarine Hr. Ms. Dolfijn returned to the port of Den Helder on 1 June after a three-month deployment as part of NATO’s Operation Ocean Shield counter-piracy mission off the Somali coast.

- Defense Technology International – The Netherlands plans to deploy 50 vessel protection detachments (VPDs) to protect vulnerable ships from Somali pirates in 2012, ten times the number deployed so far this year.

- Defense Technology International – The Royal Netherlands Navy minehunter Hr. Ms. Haarlem is hunting mines with its hull-mounted sonar and exploding those found with its Seafox unmanned underwater vehicles.

- BBC – Talks are under way to free three Dutch marines captured in Libya as they tried to evacuate foreign citizens.

- Defense Technology International – Somali pirates have been taught another lesson by the Royal Netherlands Navy’s Fast Combat Support Ship Amsterdam. Yesterday, the Amsterdam intercepted a group of pirates off the Somali coast, and not for the first time.

- Defense Technology International – The Royal Netherlands Navy support ship Hr. Ms. Amsterdam yesterday escorted a ship delivering supplies to Somalia for the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP).

Radio Netherlands – Bleak Christmas for Dutch naval crew The crew of a Dutch Royal Navy frigate off the Somali coast is facing the prospect of a bleak Christmas this year. Instead of going home to enjoy the festive season with their families, they are stuck with 13 Somali prisoners on board with no country [...]

BBC – Dutch navy arrests Somali pirates The Dutch navy has arrested 13 Somali pirates who attempted to hijack a cargo ship south of Oman.

Defense Technology International – The backbone of a modern, 21st-century navy isn’t its surface combatants or submarines. It is the large amphibious and/or logistic support ships it can deploy to trouble spots around the world, carrying helicopters, hospital facilities, an embarked landing force, supplies, fuel and a suite of C4I facilities. The Netherlands is planning [...]

Defense Technology International – The Royal Netherlands Navy is pursuing an Integrated Mast concept for a “radically new” naval sensor and communications suite for anti-air and surface warfare.more…

Defense Technology International – Both landing platform dock (LPD) ships of the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN), HrMs Johan de Witt (L 801) and Rotterdam (L 800) are en-route to an area southwest of England today for the first exercise of the NLMARFOR one-star battle staff using the command facilities on the new, yet-to-be-commissioned, Johan de [...]

Aviation Week – Escaping from a stricken submarine stranded on the bottom of the sea is a dangerous business. But escaping from a sub that’s still on the surface can be just as perilous — especially as many submarines have no life rafts and crew members are forced to rely on individual survival gear.more…

BBC – Marine accident experts investigating the sinking of a French trawler off the English coast last year have said the accident was caused by a submarine.more…