On 2 February the first of four offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) for the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN) was launched during a ceremony at Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding in Vlissingen. The ship, named Holland (P 840), will complete outfitting in the next few months with sea acceptance trials scheduled to start hi September or October. Delivery of the ship to the RNLN is due at the end of the year. OPVs like the Holland class are lightly armed, ocean-going and helicopter-capable. These ships enable a navy to maintain a presence far from its own shores as well as to patrol a state's exclusive economic zones (EEZs). They offer the capability to conduct low-intensity maritime interdiction missions such as counternarcotics, counterpiracy and search-and-rescue operations but without the costs associated with the operation of a frigate or corvette.
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