The Karel Doorman class is a class of eight multi-purpose frigates of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The class is also known as the "Multi-purpose" or M class.

The ships are named after famous Dutch naval officers, the lead ship being named after Karel Doorman.

Armament

These multi-purpose frigates can be used in the anti-submarine, anti-aircraft or surface combat roles. Their armament reflects that.

Their primary surface armament consists of two quad launchers for the RGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missile, which has a range of 120 kilometres. Backing this up is a 76 mm Oto Melara gun, which has both anti-ship and anti-air capabilities.

Air defence is provided by the Sea Sparrow vertical launch system, which uses semi-active radar to find its target and has a range of 14 km. 16 VLS cells are mounted on the port external bulkhead of the hangar. A Goalkeeper system provides close-range air defence. It fires 30 mm rounds and can fire up to 4,000 rounds per minute, with a range of 200 metres to 3 km.

For anti submarine warfare, each ship is equipped with two twin torpedo launchers, firing Mark 46 torpedoes; and carries one Westland Lynx helicopter. The helicopter is also armed with 2 Mk 46 torpedoes, and carries dipping sonar and forward looking infrared (FLIR) systems.

Ships

All ships were built by Royal Schelde Dockyard

Sales to Chilean, Belgian and Portuguese Navies

In 2004 two ships, Tjerk Hiddes and Abraham van der Hulst were sold to Chile and renamed Almirante Riveros (FF-18) and Blanco Encalada (FF-15) respectively. Blanco Encalada commissioned into the Chilean Navy on 16. December 2005, with Almirante Riveros to be commissioned in April 2007.

On 20 July 2005, the Belgian government decided to buy two of the remaining six Dutch M-class frigates to replace the two remaining frigates of the Wielingen class (Wielingen and Westdiep) currently in service with the Belgian Naval Component, which in turn might be sold to Bulgaria. On 21. December 2005, Karel Doorman and Willem van der Zaan were sold to Belgium and renamed Leopold I (F930) and Louise-Marie (F931) respectively. They will be recommissioned between 2007- 2008.

In May 2006, Portugal's National Defense Minister, Luís Amado, showed interest in buying two Karel Doorman class frigates to replace the two remaining frigates of the João Belo class in service with the Portuguese Navy — instead of buying two frigates of the Oliver Hazard Perry class, offered by the United States. A committee of the Portuguese government arrived in the Netherlands to evaluate the condition of two frigates to be bought.

In the end of May 2006, the Portuguese Government Official News Bulletin published the order for the creation of an Official Portuguese Navy's "technical team" to supervise the transfer of two M-Class Frigates to Portugal.

On November 1st 2006, the Portuguese Defense Minister Nuno Severiano Teixeira signed a contract for the purchase of the frigates Van Nes and Van Galen. Van Nes, renamed NRP Bartolomeu Dias (F333), was transferred to Portugal on January 16, 2009 and Van Galen, renamed NRP Francisco de Almeida (F334) will be transferred on November 1, 2009.

With the sale of two M''-class frigates to Portugal only two of the eight ships will remain with the Dutch Navy.