HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën (F802) is the first ship of the De Zeven Provinciën-class frigate air defence and command frigates in service with the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN). There are three other ships in this class, HNLMS Tromp (F803), HNLMS De Ruyter (F804), and HNLMS Evertsen (F805). De Zeven Provinciën is the eighth ship in the Royal Netherlands Navy to carry this name. The name refers to the original seven Dutch provinces which together formed the Union of Utrecht. She was built by Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding (formerly the Koninklijke Schelde Groep) in Vlissingen. Her design incorporates stealth technology, as well as advanced radars of Dutch design such as SMART-L and APAR. As of December 2009, Commander Hugo L.J. Ammerlaan is De Zeven Provinciën's commanding officer.

Operational history

On 21 March 2006, the container ship MV Hyundai Fortune suffered a major explosion and massive fire in the aft on-deck container stacks. When efforts to control the fire failed, the crew abandoned ship and were picked up by De Zeven Provinciën. On 4 April 2006, De Zeven Provinciën along with the destroyer USS Roosevelt (DDG-80) responded to MV Dong Won which reported that it had come under rocket attack off the coast of Somalia. However, the pirates had already hijacked the vessel and reached Somali territorial waters after threatening the captured crew. De Zeven Provinciën and Roosevelt continued to monitor the situation. On 29 March 2009, as De Zeven Provinciën was part of Operation Atalanta, the German Navy tanker GERMAN TANKER Spessart was attacked by 7-man pirate boat. Spessart had a 12-man security detail which exchanged fire with the pirates which repelled the attack. De Zeven Provinciën along with the GERMAN FRIGATE Rheinland-Pfalz, GREEK FRIGATE Psara, SPANISH FRIGATE Victoria, and USS Boxer (LHD-4) intervened. The pirates were later captured after a chase lasting a few hours. De Zeven Provinciën provided security during the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit. De Zeven Provinciën participated in Exercise Formidable Shield 2021. During the exercise, she fired two RIM-162 ESSM and assisted USS Paul Ignatius in intercepting a ballistic missile using its SMART-L radar. Between March–July 2022, De Zeven Provinciën was part of Standing NATO Maritime Group 1. She had port calls in Tallinn and Devonport. On 9 October 2022, De Zeven Provinciën along with HNLMS Van Amstel (F831) deployed to conduct drills with the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford.

Live missile firings

De Zeven Provinciën carries the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) and the SM-2 Block IIIA missile systems. The primary sensor used to guide these missile systems is APAR. In November 2003, approximately 200 nmi from the Azores, De Zeven Provinciën conducted her first live firings of these missile systems. The firings involved a single ESSM and a single SM-2. These firings were particularly significant in that they were the first ever live firings involving a full-size ship-borne Active Electronically Scanned Array (i.e., APAR) guiding missiles using the Interrupted Continuous Wave Illumination (ICWI) technique in an operational environment. As related by Jane's Navy International: "During the tracking and missile-firing tests, target profiles were provided by Greek-built EADS/3Sigma Iris PVK medium-range subsonic target drones. [...] According to the RNLN, ... "APAR immediately acquired the missile and maintained track until destruction". [...] These ground-breaking tests represented the world's first live verification of the ICWI technique." Further live firings were performed by De Zeven Provinciën in March 2005, again in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 180 nmi west of the Azores. The tests involved three live-firing events including firing a single SM-2 at an Iris target drone at long range, a single ESSM at an Iris target drone, and a two-salvo launch (with one salvo comprising two SM-2s and the other comprising two ESSMs) against two incoming Iris target drones. The long-range SM-2 engagement apparently resulted in an intercept at a range of greater than 100 km from the ship, with a missile-target miss distance of 8 ft (the warhead's proximity fuze having been disabled for the purposes of the test). In May, 2021 during At Sea Demonstration/Formidable Shield 2021 De Zeven Provinciën detected and tracked a ballistic missile with SMART-L radar and relayed the target information to USS Paul Ignatius. The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer intercepted and destroyed the ballistic missile with SM-3 surface-to-air missile.

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