BELGIAN NAVY TESTS NEW NH90 "CAIMAN" HELICOPTER.

For what seems like aeons the Belgian Navy used either the light Alouette chopper or the Seaking. These days have finally come to an end, with the introduction of the NH90, NFH version (NATO Frigate Helicopter; the Army version is called the TTH, for Tactical Transport Helicopter).

NHIndustries is a European consortium with shares held by Airbus Helicopters, Fokker Aerostructures, and AgustaWestland. The NH90 is a medium-sized, full fly-by-wire, twin-engined multi-role chopper. In the Belgian Navy, its reached initial operational readiness in August 2015.

Between 18 and 24 May, a Caiman, as it is commonly referred to instead of the NH90, conducted tests on board the frigate Leopold I: takeoff/land, dataconnections during flight, a simulated crash, manoeuvring in the hangar, and recce flights. Pic taken somewhere on the North Sea:





Some specs:

* a crew of 2 pilots, with possibly a sensor operator (not on TTH)
* capacity: 20 seated troops; or 12 medevac stretchers; or 2 NATO pallets; or 4,200 kg (9,260 lb) external slung load
* Length: 16.13 m (52 ft 11 in)
* Rotor diameter: 16.30 m (53 ft 6 in)
* Height: 5.23 m (17 ft 2 in)
* Empty weight: 6,400 kg (14,100 lb)
* Useful load: 4,200 kg (9,260 lb)
* Max. takeoff weight: 10,600 kg (23,370 lb)
* Powerplant: 2 × Rolls-Royce Turbomeca RTM322-01/9 turboshaft, 1,662 kW (2,230 shp) each, or:
Powerplant: 2 × General Electric T700-T6E turboshaft, 1,577 kW (2,115 shp) each
* Maximum speed: 300 km/h (162 knots, 186 mph)
* Range: 800 km, 497 mi (TTH); 1,000 km, 621 mi (NFH) ()
* Service ceiling: 6,000 m (20,000 ft)
* Rate of climb: 8 m/s (1,574 ft/m)
* Armament: anti-submarine and/or air to surface missiles for the NFH version, 2x door gun for the TTH version


I recall that some two years ago some concerns were raised regarding the naval types' reportedly excessive corrosion problems; this was following a deployment of the first two Dutch NH90's to the Carribean. But these problems seem to have been solved. At any rate, the corrosion issues can't have been in either airframe or rotors, since these are made of advanced composites.


MFBB.

BELGIAN F-16'S TO STAY OVER IRAQ TILL MID-2015; 50 TRAINERS TO ASSIST IRAQI ARMY.

The mission of the 6 Belgian F-16s operating against ISIS from a base in Jordan will be prolonged with another six months, till the end of June 2015. Additionally, the army will dispatch some 50 trainers to assist the Iraqi Army, within the framework of the coalition's Building Partner Capacity program.

It's been almost impossible to obtain hard info regarding the effect of the BAF's airstrikes against ISIS. Last thing I heard myself was when the tally was 18 targets hit (solely over Iraq, our jets don't operate over Syria), but that was two months ago. I suspect the sudden radio silence since then has everything to do with not causing grief to Belgium's sizeable muslim community. There is the fact that ISIS enjoys a tremendous lot of support from our, ahem, well-integrated muslim brethren, a fact easily verifiable online, plus of course Belgium is one of the top European countries per capita to dispatch would be ISIS rambos to Syria and Iraq. So news of our jets vaporizing some target of their champions might lead the more excitable among them to, say, plow a van into an infidel crowd gathered at some Chistmas Fair in one of our cities. Just guessing.

Anyway, I assume our pilots are still continuing the daily two-plane missions. Below you see a recent video shot from a French Armée de l'Air C-135FR tanker resupplying a BAF F-16AM somewhere over Iraq. The jet's ordnance consists of a GBU-12 Laser Guided Bomb and a GBU-38 JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition). There's also two AIM-120 AMRAAMs (Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles) and two AIM-9 Sidewinder IR-guided AA missiles, though I can't see the rationale for carrying such an impressive AA armament in a ground attack operation.

The video also shows a French E3-F AWACS being refueled by the same C-135FR. France's ageing fleet of these planes, which are used in the dual role of tanker plane/transport, will be replaced with Airbus A400M's and A330 MRTT's (Multi Role Tanker Transports).




Now for the bad news. Belgium's small but nevertheless not insignificant presence in international military operations hides an extremely unpleasant truth, namely the intention of the current supposedly center-right government to cut the Defense Budget even more to an appalling and totally irresponsible 0.5 per cent of GDP.


I wrote 'supposedly center-right' because that's what it is, the current government under PM Charles Michel (MR) is first and foremost center-right by perception only. It does indeed plan austerity measures but is not truly committed to reduce the country's core problem: the overwhelming size of the state. The government's approach to the crisis remains just as Keynesian as your run of the mill socialist counterpart. On a population of 11 million, about 1.1 million persons are on the government payroll in one capacity or another. Of every 100 EUR spent in Belgium, reportedly 54 or so are being spent via the State's channels. THIS, together with an insane immigration policy, is what is killing our country's economy. Belgium's entrepreneurs and a small intellectual elite of bright engineers and scientists, together with a by and large first-class but ageing workforce in the ever more shrinking private sector, keep the country from sinking. Every day they are succesfully waging their battles against an ever more usurping government, but all of them are like winning generals in a losing war. The only decent strategy to counter the country's demise would be for the state to completely stop hiring employees and not replacing them when they retire, until there are at least 300,000 less compared to the current level. Furthermore an immediate stop to immigration from muslim countries.

Neither will happen, which is why Belgium, like the rest of Europe, will slowly continue its inevitable decline. Despite the best efforts of the private sector, if nothing happens, our economy will share a fate comparable to that of cement and aggregate in a concrete mixer of which the revolving drum turns ever more slowly: ever more regulations and an ever growing state budget will finally cause the whole shebang to seize up.

Against this backdrop, our small military is setting an example of efficiency, virtually the sole one wherever an effort by the State is on display. Now operating on less than a shoestring budget and with the insane prospect of seeing its budget shrink to even less than the one provided for that old bottomless pit of Development Aid, small miracles are still being performed. Our jets are still capable of destroying islamic terrorists thousands of miles away from home, while others help providing aircover over the Baltic Republics; our frigates take part in successful anti-piracy operations off Somalia; and our troops are helping in peacekeeping operations throughout Africa, demining operations in Lebanon, and training missions as far apart as Congo, Benin, Iraq and Afghanistan.



The BNS Leopold I inspecting a suspicious vessel off the Somali coast during the so-called Operation Atalanta.

The irresponsibility and ignorance of the current crop of young Belgian ministers, in the federal as well as in the regional governments (Michel, De Croo, Schauvlieghe, Geens et al) is breathtaking. In an international geopolitical context that is literally screaming for normal nations to augment their defense budgets, this crew sees fit to instead lower its commitment to.... just 25 per cent of common NATO standard. By contrast, up north, in The Netherlands, they have seen the sign on the wall and the MoD's budget there will again be augmented to 2 per cent of GDP. Admittedly, this decision was possibly spurred by the downing of the Malaysia airliner over the Ukraine this summer by a missile delivered by Putin, a tragedy which cost the lives of some 200 Dutch citizens.

But then this appalling example should have been just as clear a message to our politicians: that the world has not become safer over the past years.

The Belgian government's nonsensical decision to decapitate its military is also a clear sign of the total absence of common sense with regards to the growing domestic threat to our native population. And by that I not only mean the danger from terrorist attacks. Any level-headed politican with a minimal grasp of history should be able to foresee the grave threat to the autochton population posed by Belgium's muslim community, with its runaway demographics. Like in every country where the muslim majority at some point reaches a critical treshold - and this treshold may be well below the 50 per cent mark - a civil war is practically a given.

Indeed, a responsible government should quietly prepare TODAY for the eventuality of 2040, to spare the native population as well as the productive part of our immigrants the fate that has befallen so many in countries where islam began roaring its ugly head. My mom's sister runs a B & B in Bruges, and last month there was an affluent Lebanese couple with children among their guests. The man, a maronite Christian, started to bemoan the fate of his beloved Lebanon, which in his young days, when the ratio Christians/Muslims was along 70/30 per cent lines, was rightly considered the Switzerland of the Middle East. These days, he told my mom's sister and her friend, the population ratios had reversed, "and look at what Lebanon has become". Had I been present, I would have pressed on with questions because, according to R. and B., the man was clearly in a talking mood. B. however, my aunt's friend, cut the communication short with a no-brainer like that 'he respected the guest's view but was in no place to take sides'... after which his Lebanese guest politely refrained from continuing.

Anyway, similar mechanisms as have played out in Lebanon and in Europe's own backyard in the nineties are right now on full display in yet other countries, most notably in western Africa. In Nigeria e.g., muslims have been outbreeding the Christians for decades. To be sure, Islam's ascent in this potentially very rich country has throughout history been borne just as well by several jihads, most notably the one against the Hausa rulers in the early nineteenth century. A further factor has ironically been colonialism, which allowed muslims in the north freedom of movement and religion, which they used to travel south and establish footholds there, while the very nature of islam itself prohibited any such development by Christians in the south vectored towards the north. Anyway, whatever factors have borne the rise of islam in Nigeria, the fact remains that muslims now outnumber Christians, with all the expected consequences.

The Nigerian government can perhaps be excused for not having the resources to protect its citizens against the beasts of Boko Haram, who are quite literally tearing the country, once one of the richest of the continent, apart.

The Belgian government has no such excuse.



MFBB.

BELGIAN NAVY 101.

On April 2, 2008 the Belgian Navy officially acquired a new frigate, which it purchased from the Dutch Navy. The latter, for a small country like The Netherlands actually a very fine force, is currently building some smaller corvettes to replace several of the (relatively) unwieldy vessels. The frigate, formerly Hr.Ms. Willem Van Der Zaan (Hr.Ms. = Hare Majesteit, Her Majesty, the Dutch have a Queen. Note by MFBB), was christened F931 Louise Marie, after the first Belgian Queen. It sister ship, the F930 Leopold I, named after Belgium's first king, was commissioned in 2007 already. Both frigates belong to the so-called Karel Doorman Class, named after Dutch Rear Admiral Karel Doorman who died in the Battle of the Java Sea, February 27, 1942, one of those early naval battles which went so disastrously wrong for the Allies. Although he could have saved himself Doorman preferred to go down with his flagship, the light cruiser Hr.Ms. De Ruyter. Rear Admiral Shoji Nishimura's fleet suffered only negligible losses, the combined American-British-Dutch-Australian force was about decimated. Among the victims was the British heavy cruiser HMS Exeter, veteran of the 1939 Battle of the Rio de la Plata.

Both the Leopold I and the Louise-Marie (I know, especially the latter name sucks, but unlike the Dutch we Belgians are a bit short on famous admirals) are so-called M (Multipurpose) frigates, which means that they were specifically designed to deal with a variety of combat situations, be it surface warfare, aerial defense, or fighting submarines. To some degree stealth techniques were used in the design, and a great deal of the machinery is fully automated, e.g. under normal circumstances the engine room is unmanned, with only one technician monitoring everything via a number of displays.




Never having had a great naval tradition, Belgium's Navy has always been a neglected service. The heaviest "fighting" vessels Belgium had were an old cruiser bought from the French, the D'Entrecasteaux, which saw briefly service in the interbellum, and the gunboat Artevelde, which the Kriegsmarine actually equipped as such when the almost completed ship was captured in 1940 on the Cockerill shipyard in Antwerp. After literally decades of negligence, the commissioning of today's frigates is therefore something of an anticlimax since we never had anything remotely comparable. Overall measures are still modest, with a total length of 123.72 metres and a width of 14.37 meters. The draught is 6.2 meters, and water displacement is 3.328 tonnes. But it's the armament which is pretty impressive. Surface targets are engaged with RGM-84 Harpoon missiles, torpedoes, or the OTO Melara fast-firing 76mm gun. Aerial targets are dealt with using NATO Sea Sparrow missiles or also the OTO Melara gun. The machinery consists of two Stork-Werkspoor diesels developing 9.790 HP together, and two Rolls Royce Spey 1A gas turbines of 33.800 HP (also combined). Maximum speed is 30 knots, using the turbines. When the diesels are engaged, speed is limited to 21 knots. The F-930 and F-931 each have a crew of 145, consisting of 15 officers, 70 NCO's and 60 sailors.




The Leopold I and the Louise-Marie replace the last two remaining Wielingen class frigates, designed and built (with Dutch advice) at the Boelwerf in Temse, now defunct, and the Cockerill shipyard in Antwerp. At the height of the Cold War the Belgian Navy had four of them, namely the F-910 Wielingen, the F-911 Westdiep, the F-912 Wandelaar and the F-913 Westhinder. The latter was scrapped in 1993 following defense cuts. The remaining three were one after another sold to Bulgaria, which in this manner acquired its first NATO compliant warships. The F-912 in 2004, and the F-910 and F-911 last year (naval buffs may be interested to know that the Bulgarian Navy is the in the process of modernization, and will rely both on our secondhand frigates as on newly to be built state of the art French Gowind corvettes, for which Bulgaria cut a deal with France last fall). Somehow I will miss the old ships, which I had the occasion to view in person on a naval show in Zeebrugge some years back. Despite their size they packed a respectable firepower. The gun up front, a 100mm Creusot-Loire, was actually heavier than the gun equipping the new frigates. Instead of Harpoons they relied on MM38 Exocets, which the Argentine Air Force used in its air-to-surface variant to such devastating effects in the 1982 Falklands War.



Below yet another pic of a Wielingen class frigate, the F-910. It's kind of an historical photo since taken during the Gulf War, either in the fall of 1990 or the spring of 1991. Belgium had dispatched a minesweeper flotilla escorted first by the F-912, then by the F-910. Just behind the gun turret, you see the six-barreled 375mm rocket launcher for use against submarines. The Exocet missiles for defense against enemy ships are on the aft deck. At the extreme end, barely visible, are the Sea Sparrows. Full armament details here.




The mainstay of the small Belgian Navy are its minehunters/minesweepers, however. Ever since World War II, when an all-Belgian minehunter flotilla, the 118th, operated within the British Royal Navy, this particular branch of service has received most attention. However, defense cuts have now cut down the force to just six minehunters, of which the M915 Aster is shown below. It's a so-called tripartite mine hunter, with a glass reinforced polyester (GRP) hull because of the low magnetic signature. This kind of vessels acquitted itself fairly well during the Gulf War: in 1990-1991 the Belgian minesweeper/hunter flotilla accounted for just under one third of the close to 1,000 destroyed mines in the Persian Gulf. Vessels like this, also in use in the Dutch and French navies, use remotely operated vehicles to eliminate mines if the risks for divers are too great. The two types ROV in use are the so-called PAP (Poisson Auto-Propulsé) and the Seafox. The finer techniques are taught in EGUERMIN, the Naval Mine Warfare School in Oostende which Belgium and The Netherlands operate together.





To conclude, below a picture from the old box: the troop transport ship AP957 Kamina en route for Korea with on board the Belgian contribution to the fighting there, one infantry battalion (one platoon came from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg). In Korea, the battalion was subordinated to various British and American units, namely the British 29th Infantry Brigade (during the Battle of the Imjin River) and the US 3rd Infantry Division "Rock of the Marne".



Photos via the Belgian Navy site.


MFBB.