On 7 July, the outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed a key agreement with Netherlands Prime Minister Rob Jetten on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Ankara. 

This agreement commits the two Nations to working together to build 8 new “Amphibious Transport Ships” to replace their existing vessels. Each Country is getting 4 ships and the UK mentions an investment of “£2.4 billion” (the near totality of which will sit beyond 2030) while the Netherlands’ ministry’s own press release more prudently says “€1 to 2.5 billion” for their side.

The return to a joint programme had become obvious days earlier with the publication of the UK Defence Investment Plan. Indeed, the original press release on the theme of amphibious vessels already on June 28 had revealed the travel direction by mentioning the “Amphibious Transport Ships”, the project name used by the Netherlands. The press release was edited soon after and to this day reads a more anonymous “Amphibious Ships”, but the cat was already out of the bag at that point.

It is the second time the UK and Dutch projects attempt to merge. A statement of intent with the Netherlands for a joint project had been signed by the previous Conservative administration on 30 June 2023, in Den Helder, with the then HMS ALBION as background.

Project CATHARINA lasted less than one year. By June 2024 the UK concluded that despite finding “a lot of  common ground” there were also significant distances between conceps and budgets so a “full common design” would not be possible. The scope of CATHARINA was reduced to ensuring interoperability between the ships and jointly procuring as many sub-systems as possible.

The UK Multi Role Support Ship, which in 2025 briefly became Multi Role Strike Ship before being effectively cancelled, were heading towards a LPD design and very significant dimensions. The large superstructure of a LPD was meant to enable the easier inclusion of a hangar for perhaps as many as 4 MERLIN HC4 helicopters, while preserving spaces for other payloads. A substantial armament, either fixed or embarked in containers/NavyPODS was meant to ensure survivability and strike capabilities.

Crucially, the MRSS were to be “up to 6” as they would have to replace the LPDs HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark with their 2033/2034 Out of Service Dates, plus the 3 BAY-class LSDs and the auxiliary ship RFA ARGUS.

In the meanwhile, the Dutch ATS project looked at “up to 6 ships” as well, with which to replace the current 2 LPDs, ROTTERDAM and JOHAN DE WITT as well as its OPVs. An amphibious vessel was assessed to better respond to the missions currently assigned to OPVs, which include disaster relief work in the Caribbean hurricane season.

The ATS evolved towards a through-deck flat top, which is understood to remain the case. Since 6 ships would replace 2 LPDs in the Dutch case, the individual vessel could afford to be smaller than the present LPDs. By around 2025, consensus was firming up around circa 150 meters of length, significantly more than initial concepts. The number of ships was reduced to 4 in exchange, although not “officially”.

Back in the UK, in the meanwhile, the new labour government removed from service the 2 LPDs in November 2024 in a pre-Strategic Defence Review cut and subsequently removed from service RFA ARGUS as well. It initially promised to “accelerate” MRSS in response.

The Defence Investment Plan does no such thing. The MRSS project is abandoned because “too complex”, the document claims. The 7 July press release says the ATS will be 160 meters long and displace some 15,000 tons. 4 ships are to be acquired, to an uncertain timeline into the 2030s.

This means the ATS are significantly smaller than the BAYs and much smaller than the ALBIONs, with inevitable nefarious consequences on the UK’s amphibious lift capability which cannot yet be fully estimated as details of the ATS design are not yet know. The Dutch, which intend(ed?) to have the first of their ships entering service in 2032 are expected to reveal more details of their design work later this year.

In the meanwhile, UK Defence Industry Minister Luke Pollard, speaking to a joint Treasury-Defence parliamentary committee on July 8, claimed that UK yards will build all 8 ATS: the UK ones but also the ones for the Netherlands.

This claim remains completely unconfirmed from the Dutch side and appears, at best, premature. The ATS project in the Netherlands was openly intended to be work for Damen, even though it would be mostly located in their Galati shipyard in Romania rather than in the Netherlands themselves. Telling the national shipbuilder that a big 6 ships project is now a 0 hulls project beyond the design work is not an easy thing to do for any politician and we expect the final build plan to be more nuanced, perhaps with Blocks built by each Country and final assembly in the UK. It’s too early to say.

The number, size and capacity of the ATS design is a serious concern for the future of the United Kingdom’s amphibious warfare capability. There will also be some inevitable design differences that will need conciliation as well. Both UK and Netherlands amphibious forces, which already operate jointly as a NATO force and have done so for decades, operate very similar landing craft, both the small LCVPs and larger LCUs for heavy vehicles.

Both countries need to replace either type. The Netherlands have already ordered a replacement for their LCVPs, the Landing Assault Craft designed in Finland by Autech. These boats will be much faster than the old ones but will have essentially the same dimensions to be compatible with the same davits. Length is thus circa 16 meters.

The UK is due to procure its LCVP MK5 replacement, the Commando Insertion Craft, from Norway as a form of “offset” for Norway’s adoption of the british Type 26 frigate. The Joint Commando Craft / CIC has recently become a joint UK-Norway procurement project which will chose a design in the coming months, but what is already known is that the boat will be significantly larger.

The objective is something that fits within 20 meters of length and 40 tons of weight, but the upper limits are 22 meters length, 60 tons, 7,5 meters in beam. It is clear that the bays / davits will have to be different. The Netherlands should soon pick an LCU successor (they need it in service by 2032 according to known plans) while the UK timeline for replacement of its own LCU MK10s is still unknown. A tentative “Commando Utility Craft” project is understood to exist but funding will not be available before 2030, for all the DiP tells us. In other words, on the ATS front, much remains to be firmed up.  

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