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Wielingen

The 'Wielingen' class were the first frigates to be built and designed in Belgium, and are the largest ships in the Belgian navy. They are equipped with weapons and sensors from France, Sweden, Canada, the USA and the Netherlands. For surface action they have Exocet missiles and for air defense a Creusot-Loire dual-purpose 100 mm gun and Sea Sparrow SAMS. For ASW they have French L5 homing torpedoes and Bofors anti-submarine rockets. The 'Wielingen' class carries a heavy, well-balance armament in a compact hull. Of the original four ships built, only two remain in service.

On 22 December 1970, the Belgian government decided that the Navy could proceed to order 4 escort vessels from Belgian yards to replace the 6 old "Algerine" type escorts. The last of which was scrapped in 1969. Plans were already drawn up in 1964, with the "Koninklijke Marine" (Nl) providing technical support and advice. From 1971 this work was continued in cooperation with the two national shipyards Boel (Temse) and Cockerill (Antwerp). This would lead to the eventual building orders, and the first ship was laid down on March 5th 1974.

A contest was organized, and a reserve officer of the Navy provided the winning answer. "WESTDIEP" and "WIELINGEN" are 2 navigationable passages off the Flemish Banks, "WANDELAAR" on the other hand is a large sandbank off the Belgian coast.

The complement consists of 14 officers, 84 NCO's and 59 sailors, and is divided in 3 departments: Internal Service, Operations and Technical.

Missions include defense of the merchant navy by escorting convoys and conducting anti-submarine operations, self-defense against surface ships, and self-defense against aircraft.

Updates on DA05 and WM25 radars and the installation of the Kelvin Hughes SCOUT navigation radars and KH1007 LPI have been completed. The installation of the EOMS-systems, SQS 510 sonar and ARGOS 900 ESM System are running as scheduled. Sea trials for the SAGEM EOMS are taking place in September coming.

Contracts have been signed for the installation of an inertial navigation system with SAGEM and another with TME for the installation of a Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) system. The renewal of the internal and external communication systems has been awarded to Thomson. A contract for the installation new electro-plotting tables may expect to be awarded in the near future. The naval staffs is also envisaging a CME-consolidation (Hull, Propulsion, Electricity), involving the installation of new diesel engines.