Go Dutch!!

Our company provides electronics systems that are installed on various foreign ships, submarines and aircraft.  So, it was with delight I read the following story today.  Check out the news story... then check out the armaments that are standard on this class of frigate.

NAIROBI, Kenya – These Somali pirates picked the wrong ship to hijack.

Troops aboard the Dutch warship HNLMS Tromp (pictured below) fired warning shots Wednesday off the coast of East Africa as suspected Somali pirates in two small skiffs raced toward their warship, the EU Naval Force said.

After the pirates realized they had made what spokesman Cmdr. John Harbour called a "rather silly mistake," they turned around and fled. EU Naval Force personnel tracked down the two skiffs and a third suspected mothership, finding ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades on board, said Harbour, a spokesman for the EU Naval Force.

The two skiffs were destroyed and the pirates were set free on the mothership after it had been cleared of weapons.

HNLMS Tromp Armaments:

• 5×8 Mk41 vertical launch misile system with 8 cells each
• Standard armament: 8×4 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile and 32 SM-2 IIIA surface-to-air missiles
• Another 8 cell MK41 VLS can be added
• 2 Goalkeeper CIWS guns (4,200 rounds/minute)
• 2 quadruple Harpoon anti-ship missile launchers
• 1 Oto Melara 127 mm/54 dual-purpose gun
• 2 Oerlikon Contraves 20 mm machine guns
• 2 twin MK32 Mod 9 torpedo launchers with Raytheon MK46 Mod 5 torpedoes