A handful of colleagues, including the Commander of the Navy in the Caribbean, Brigadier General of the Marines Peter Jan de Vin stood Monday at the pier of naval base Parera to Zr.Ms. Groningen a good return to be desired. With the arrival of Zr.Ms. Zealand in the Caribbean Groningen can begin its journey across the Atlantic ocean, back to the Netherlands. Together with his Chief of Equipage, adjutant of the operational service operations Hans Hijman, General Fin threw one of the moorings. “The two-year pilot of the concept of a crew exchange is interrupted, but I see the ship after its maintenance period in the Netherlands quickly in the West,” said the general.
Since April 2019 the Royal Navy has begun a pilot project in which the ship station Zr.Ms. Groningen for two years remain in the Caribbean and crew changes a whole. However, the Groningen goes to Netherlands for a brief period of maintenance. This return was not planned. The interactions between Groningen and Zeeland is a direct result of the closure of airspace from Curacao incoming flights because of the coronavirus. The flight restrictions ensure that the crew of Zeeland, which would fly to Curaçao as the crew of Groningen take over, now goes sailing to the Caribbean. The travel restrictions also affect maintenance personnel of the Royal Navy, which would carry out site maintenance to Groningen. Once the Groningen back they do now in the Netherlands.
operations
Besides maritime presence and offering relief, are conducting counter-drug operations and support of the Coast Guard CARIB important tasks of the station ship. During the coronavirus station ship mainly performed the latter task (support Coast Guard CARIB). Next to the station ship Defense supports the Caribbean Coastguard among other soldiers of the Army and the Marine Corps and the Aruba and Curaçao militia, both on land and on water. Marine Detachment on St. Maarten as support local authorities in maintaining the measures promulgated by the government.
Karel Doorman
Monday morning is the joint support ship of the Royal Navy, Zr.Ms. Karel Doorman, left the Netherlands. Defense sends navy ship to support the local authorities (egg) countries to combat the corona crisis as the situation requires. The support and supply ship is initially deployed for three months.
