[2] At the time of this order the Royal Netherlands Navy believed that these two submarines could possibly make use of nuclear propulsion.

Like many other navies around the world the Netherlands got interested in nuclear propulsion after the United States had put USS Nautilus into active service in 1955.

[5] Besides Royal Netherlands Navy, Dutch naval experts at the time also stressed in numerous articles how important nuclear submarines were and that there would not be such a big technological leap forward again in at least a decade.

[6] These kind of statements and recommendations also encouraged the Royal Netherlands Navy to start thinking about acquiring nuclear submarines.

[2] There was simply not enough money, since the defence budget in this period could not cover the costs of both constructing nuclear submarines and maintaining all the ships in the Dutch fleet at the same time.

[citation needed] The United States was not eager about the idea of the Netherlands building nuclear submarines, they rather had the Dutch navy focus on other areas within the NATO alliance, the negotiations therefore stopped in 1969.

The Zwaardvis-class submarines were designed by the Royal Netherlands Navy and further worked out by the four biggest Dutch yards at the time, namely RDM, Wilton-Fijenoord, De Schelde and NDSM, and also by Werkspoor N.V. and N.V. Nederlandsche Vereenigde Scheepsbouw Bureaux.

[17] Since Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij went broke, the Dutch Ministry of Defence eventually paid for the demolishing and scrapping of the two submarines.