Combat Fleets

Progress on the German K 130 corvette program is proceeding well and on 29 March the third unit of the class, Erfurt, pictured right, was christened at Nordseewerke shipyard in Emden. The corvette's sea trials are planned to begin this October with an expected service-entry date of April 2008. Namesake and first unit of the class, Braunschweig, successfully completed sea trials after a slight delay. She is expected to be commissioned during mid-2007. Magdeburg, second of the class, recently completed fitting out at Lürssen shipyard and following her sea trials is expected in service by November 2007. Five units of the class are planned, with the remaining two sisters, Oldenburg and Ludwigshafen, expected in service by early 2009.

On 21 March 2007, two Royal Navy submariners were killed and a third was injured when a self-contained oxygen generation candle exploded on board their submarine HMS Tireless. Tireless, a Trafalgar-class nuclear-powered attack submarine, was operating in the Arctic Ocean while taking part in the joint U.S. Navy/Royal Navy Ice Exercise 2007 (ICEX-07) in company with the Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Alexandria (SSN-757) and elements of the Applied Physics Laboratory ice station. After the blast, the British submarine surfaced through the ice and the injured sailor was evacuated to Elmendorf Air Force Base for treatment. The explosion, which reportedly occurred in a forward compartment, caused only superficial damage to the submarine, which normally carries a crew of 130 sailors. As a precautionary note, restrictions have been placed on the use of similar oxygen candles throughout the Royal Navy.
 
Of the eight Karel Doorman–class frigates built from 1985 to 1995 for the Royal Netherlands Navy, only two remain in Dutch service, the Van Speijk and Van Amstel. The retired Karel Doorman, sold to Belgium in 2005, completed refit in the Netherlands and entered Belgian fleet service on 29 March 2007. The ship, shown right, has been renamed Leopold I and renumbered F 930. She will be joined in Belgium by sister ship Louise-Marie (ex-Willem Van Der Zaan) later this year. Two other sisters, Tjerk Hiddes and Abraham Van Der Hulst, have been transferred to Chile and renamed Almirante Riveros and Almirante Blanco Encalada, respectively. The remaining pair, Van Nes and Van Galen, were sold to Portugal in 2006 and are expected to transfer by 2009. Although Dutch transfer plans initially called for some of the ships to go to different nations among those cited, frequent changes are fairly common prior to final and official turnover of the vessels.