Dutch MoD deploys newly leased RoRo ship for first time

The Dutch MoD's newly leased RoRo ship, New Amsterdam , is readied for its first deployment to Lithuania on 25 July. (Dutch MoD)

The Dutch Ministry of Defence (MoD) has officially put into service its newly leased medium Roll-on/Roll-off (RoRo) ship, named New Amsterdam.

The ship, which will be operated by the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN) and used to secure strategic sea transport on a permanent basis, departed Eemshaven, bound for the port of Klaipeda in Lithuania, on 25 July, the MoD said in a statement. The ship was loaded with Dutch soldiers participating in NATO's enhanced forward presence (eFP) battalion as well as containers of supplies for the next rotation of the eFP, it said.

New Amsterdam is being leased for ten years from TransProCon, part of the Swedish Orient Line, under a contract signed on 14 January 2022.

The MoD had previously opted to rent RoRo ships on an ad hoc basis. However, an increasing scarcity of such ships on the market since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic led to the decision to lease a ship on a longer-term basis to reduce uncertainty.

“Soldiers must be able to count on the logistics being in order during their deployment,” General Onno Eichelsheim, the Dutch chief of defence, said in an MoD statement on 25 July. “If you look at the war in Ukraine, you will see the importance of good logistics and timely supply. However, strategic transport is a bottleneck and that is why I am so pleased with this co-operation. As a defence department, we don't have to have everything in-house, as long as we can have access to it when it is needed.”