Chief of the German Navy visits Damen Naval

Damen Naval and the F126 project received a visit from the highest ranking officer in the German Navy. On 13 November, Vice Admiral Jan Christian Kaack, Chief of the German Navy, called at the Vlissingen head office for an afternoon of meetings and presentations.

For Damen Naval, the visit had two specific aims, says Magiel Venema, Managing Director of Damen Naval Germany. “Number one: to give the Vice Admiral a look at Damen Naval, about what we do and our role in the larger Damen Shipyards Group. Here, the key people involved were Roland Briene, Richard Keulen, Kathrin Rohloff and Hein van Ameijden.”

The second aim of the visit was to give Vice Admiral Kaack a deeper insight into the F126 project, in which Damen Naval is designing, engineering and building six frigates for the German Navy. “This began with presentations from F126 Project Director Frank Verhelst, his deputy Frank Mallon and the six sub-project leaders. These gave a transparent impression of the status of the project: what is going well and what challenges we are facing. In this context, we also discussed the project’s delay, and what we are doing to mitigate its impact. It is important that we also dare to discuss these kinds of sensitive issues with each other”, adds Magiel. “Also the Project Director of our customer BAAINBw was present during the visit, showing the level of cooperation in the programme.”

Next on the agenda was a tour of the F126 offices and a demonstration of some of the Virtual Reality training programmes that Damen Naval is developing for the Land-Based Training facilities of the German Navy. This part of the F126 project is notable in many ways, says Magiel. “These VR training programmes are groundbreaking, using cutting edge technologies. Not only do they represent an innovative and modern approach to training for us here at Damen, but VR trainings like these are new for the German Navy too. I would like to give a special mention to Tanja Schmitz and Pak Cheung for their efforts in making this demonstration such a success.”

This was Vice Admiral Kaack’s first visit to Damen Naval. “He also took the opportunity to speak to the F126 project team about the importance of this project for the German Navy. His main message was ‘these ships will be the cornerstone of the German Navy and we need them as soon as possible because the enemy is not waiting for us’. This is a very important message,” continues Magiel.

“It was a great honour to receive his visit and we are proud to have done so. It is a sign of his interest and involvement in our work. After all, he is responsible for the personnel and material readiness of the German Navy and he will be the person responsible for deploying these frigates,” Magiel concludes.