To deal with this threat the Belgian Congress ordered two brigantines to be built, which bore the names Congrès and Les Quatre Journées.

This new navy, consisting mostly of small patrol vessels and coastal artillery units, lasted barely a year until the German invasion of May 1940.

[7] During World War II many members of the Naval Corps, together with Belgian fishermen and merchant sailors, escaped to Britain with the explicit wish of fighting the German occupiers.

From 1940 to 1946, the Belgian Section of the British Royal Navy crewed two corvettes, (Buttercup and Godetia), a squadron of MMS minesweepers and three patrol boats (Phrontis [fr], Electra and Kernot).

Later developments occurred in the 1970s, when the natively designed Belgian Wielingen-class frigates were built, and in the 1980s when Belgium, France, and the Netherlands launched the Tripartite-class minehunters.

In 2002, the government decided to impose a "single structure" on the armed forces in which the independent Belgian Marine Royale ceased to exist.

In October 2005, the Wielingen-class frigate Wandelaar was officially handed over to the Bulgarian Navy, which christened the ship as Drăzki ('The Bolds').

In February 2013 it was announced that Belgium had ordered two 52-metre (171 ft) patrol vessels from the French shipyard SOCARENAM, to be delivered within two years.

[9] In times of crisis and war the Belgian Naval Component will manage, with the support of its allies, the crises rising from the infringements to the principles of International law and from the Humans right and exercise the Belgian sovereignty in the maritime zones where the Naval Component is qualified, defend the underwater communication lines, main roads and allied, and protect the ports against any air, surface or underwater attack.

(Belgium) 28 Nov 1991 (Netherlands) Sociéte Calaisienne de Réparation Navale et Mécanique Note: 3 Tripartite class ships to be (as of 2024) donated to Ukraine.

[14] "Anti-Submarine Warfare Frigate" Netherlands Artist impression Artist impression "mine countermeasures vessel" ECA Group [fr] Piriou Sociéte Calaisienne de Réparation Navale et Mécanique Aircraft operated by 40th Squadron Heli, from the Belgian Air Component.