Netherlands, UK, sign agreement on future amphibious ship programme

ATS concept design activity has considered both a conventional LPD-type configuration and an aviation-optimised through-deck design. (Netherlands Ministry of Defence)

The governments of the Netherlands and the UK have agreed to jointly build a new fleet of eight amphibious vessels to serve as the backbone of a recapitalised UK-Netherlands (UK/NL) amphibious force.

UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and his Dutch counterpart Rob Jetten signed the maritime partnership agreement on 7 July during a meeting of NATO leaders in Ankara. Both nations plan to acquire four ships built to a common Amphibious Transport Ship (ATS) design developed in the Netherlands.

According to the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), the new ATS design will be 160 m in length and displace 15,000 tonnes. The ships - likely to be configured with a full-length flight deck for manned and unmanned aviation operations plus a stern dock for surface connectors - will be used transport troops, vehicles and equipment.

The decision to move forward with the acquisition of a common design comes just over two years after the UK and the Netherlands concluded that the differing requirements for their respective Multi Role Strike Ship (MRSS) and ATS projects could not be reconciled in a single ship design. The UK's change of heart back to favouring a single joint-designed ship, first announced in the Defence Investment Plan (DIP), follows the cancellation of the six-ship MRSS programme and a re-scoping of its capability requirements.

The ATS programme – previously known as LPX – was established to provide the Royal Netherlands Navy with new multi-role ships to replace the landing platform dock (LPD) ships HNLMS Rotterdam and HNLMS Johan de Witt