Kortenaer-class frigate

The Kortenaer class was a class of frigates of the Royal Netherlands Navy. They were built to be a general purpose frigate; able to combat all surface, submarine and aircraft targets. Like some of the other frigates of the 1970s and 1980s, they featured a COGOG (combined gas or gas) propulsion system. Ten were built by de Schelde in Vlissingen and two by Wilton-Fijenoord in Schiedam between 1978 and 1982. Only 10 served with the Royal Netherlands Navy: two were sold to Greece while still under construction and replaced by two Jacob van Heemskerck class frigates which are basically an AAW variant of the Kortenaer class. The Greek frigates were renamed the Elli class.

Eight similar ships were built by Germany during the same period in the Bremen class.

Service
By 2003 all ships were transferred to the navies of Greece and the United Arab Emirates.

In Dutch service the frigates were armed with a Goalkeeper CIWS on top of the helicopter-hangar. In Greek service the Goalkeepers were replaced with Phalanx CIWS due to high maintenance costs.

Both ships of the United Arab Emirates, the Al Emirat and the Abu Dhabi are being converted into a super luxury Giga yachts known as Swift 141 (launched as Yas) and Swift 135.

Two ships, the Elli and the Limnos, were built for the Greek Navy in 1981, they are referred to as the Elli-class frigates by the Hellenic Navy and have different equipment and weapons from the Dutch ships.

The Imperial Iranian Navy ordered eight modified ships from Royal Schelde but the contract was canceled after the Iranian revolution.

Ships in the class
The ships were named after Dutch captains and admirals: