Russia Window Shopping European Amphibious Ships

It would appear the Russians are keeping their options open when it comes to buying European amphibious ships. In late June, the HNLMS Johan de Witt (L801) made an appearance at the International Maritime Defence Show held in St Petersburg. Among the visitors was Russian Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Vladimir Vysotskiy. is a much larger brother of HNLMS Rotterdam (L800), the Dutch Landing Transport Dock currently undergoing repairs at Scheldepoort in Vlissingen-Oost. According to this Dutch media report, the Dutch LDP is competition to the French Mistral. Translation from blog regular Gijs.

Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding in Vlissingen could win an order for four Russian amphibious transportship.

This was confirmed yesterday by CEO Hein Ameijden. "But there are also a lot of contacts between the French and the Russians, I understood from the newspapers. And I give the French a very good chance," Van Ameijden said.

In late June, in the port of St. Petersburg, the International Maritime Defence Show 2009 was held. The amphibious transport ship HNLMS Johan de Witt was there at the invitation of the Russian Federation. Several manufactureres of products in the field of naval construction had an exhibition on the Johan de Witt. Although a Damen stand was not present, there were talks about a possible order for the first time in St. Petersburg.

At 16,800 tons, HNLMS Johan de Witt (L801) is not as large as the French Mistral, but is less expensive. HNLMS Johan de Witt (L801) was built to transport the combat logistics and support elements of a Netherlands Marine Battalion, where HNLMS Rotterdam (L800) would carry the assault element when the ships operated together. Typically HNLMS Johan de Witt (L801) carries around 550 Marines. Additionally, HNLMS Johan de Witt (L801) has aviation facilities for supporting up to 6 medium helicopters.

These ships are very mature however, with design similarities between the British Bay class and the Spanish Galicia class, suggesting configuration could be optimized for the Russian needs.