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F930 Leopold I

The F930 Leopold I is one of the two frigates of the Belgian navy. The ship can conduct peacemaking operations for NATO's rapid reaction force, peacekeeping operations, defense diplomacy and collective defense of the country and its allies. The crew consists of 145 soldiers: fifteen officers, seventy non-commissioned officers and sixty sailors. The slogan of the Leopold I is: Audaces fortuna iuvat ( Happiness is with the heroic).

The F931 Louise-Marie is one of the two frigates of the navy. The ship can conduct peacemaking operations for NATO's rapid reaction force, peacekeeping operations, defense diplomacy and collective defense of the country and its allies. The crew consists of 145 soldiers: fifteen officers, seventy non-commissioned officers and sixty sailors. The slogan of the Louise-Marie is: Ad augusta per angusta ( To the triumph along difficult roads).

The former Dutch frigate Karel Doorman officially started his second life in Belgium on 29 March 2007 under the new name F930 Leopold I. Queen Fabiola became meter of the ship and Nijvel was chosen as Peter City. This immediately meant an even closer collaboration with the Dutch Navy within the structure of the Admiralty Benelux (ABNL). As the Netherlands still had this type of ship, the cooperation expanded with a logistical part and the joint operational training became a lot easier.

After the work-up phase, Leopold I began its operational career on September 5, 2007 with a shipment to the east coast of Africa. During that East African Venture, the acquisition of operational experience and defense diplomacy were central. At the same time, the frigate charted the piracy around the Horn of Africa during the reconnaissance mission. Since 2008, the Leopold I was deployed during various operations. From 1 September to 7 December 2008 it operated under UN command off the coast of Lebanon. More recently, there were Operation Sophia, the fight against illegal smuggling in the Mediterranean, and operation Chammal, an escort mission with the French Groupe Aéronaval (GAN).

A Belgian frigate, the Leopold I, provided combat cover for the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in the eastern Mediterranean, where the French Navy plans to conduct operations against the Islamic State terrorist group, Belgian Defense Minister Steven Vandeput said 25 November 2015. "We will join the Charles de Gaulle in the Mediterranean. The mission consists in defense. The Charles de Gaulle is an aircraft carrier that is protected by a number of ships, including French and British ones," Vandeput said on RTBF television.

From 2016 to 2018 the Leopold I frigate received a wide range of often unique assignments. It participated in operations against human smuggling and from the Persian Gulf against the terrorists of Islamic State. Later it also shadowed the Russian fleet around the aircraft carrier Kuznetsov. Furthermore, the frigate and its crew fulfilled missions to train, train and motivate new navy people, carried out various tests and tactical launches of air defense missions and many representation missions. This wide range of assignments yielded beautiful images and gave them the opportunity to show their potential to the maximum and also to reap the publicity of it.

Thales is to provide the two M-class frigates of the Belgian Navy with Seastar and Gatekeeper sensors. Thales Nederland received a contract for two Seastar and Gatekeeper sensors, that were to be delivered and installed on the two multi-purpose M-class frigates of the Belgian Navy. The modernisation will take place in 2011 and 2013 in the scope of the M-frigates' upkeep program. The Seastar and Gatekeeper sensors provide the vessels with the capability to detect small targets encountered during missions, and to counter frontier-running, pollution, drugs trafficking and piracy. The two new sensors will be matched with the tried-and-true SMART-S surveillance radar and the STIR weapon control radar that are on board of the M-frigates.

From the end of October to the beginning of November 2018, Trident Juncture, the largest military exercise of NATO since the end of the Cold War, took place in Scandinavia. As the literal meaning of Trident Juncture states - three components that reinforce each other - the exercise requires cooperation between the Navy, Land and Air Component. This year the frigates of Trident Juncture were active in the fjords near the Nordic Trondheim, while the Godetia and the mine hunters were operational in the Baltic. The Belgian Navy was present on Trident Juncture with the frigate F931 Louise-Marie, which recently became part of the NATO squadron Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG 1).

The Louise-Marie had to help with the security of an amphibious task group , consisting of, among others, the French BPC L9015 Dixmude and the Dutch landing platform L801 Zr.Ms. Johan de Witt. The NATO exercise had a lot in store for the participants. The frigate Louise-Marie was sent on a hunt for three Norwegian attack submarines. These small submarines have the tactical advantage that they can dive reasonably deep in the fjords and know the region well. The numerous simulated attacks put strong pressure on the members of the Combat Information Center (CIC), the combat command center on the ship. In addition, the Russian navy sent a number of corvettes and a supply ship to the zone. In this way she got a sneak peak in the tactics of a large-scale NATO exercise.