France, March 13 -- The Dutch government will decide tomorrow, Friday, if it will buy four French-made submarines from the Paris-based Naval Groupafter deliberations lasting nine years.

Dutch media outlet RTL Nieuws, quoting "informed sources" reported that France's Naval Group is likely to be the one to replace the thirty-year old Walrus class fleet of Dutch subs, beating rivals Saab from Sweden and Germany's Thyssen-Krupp Marine Systems (TKMS.)

Saab would have partnered with Dutch Damen Shipyards, while Naval cooperates with shipbuilder Royal IHC, another Dutch constructor.

Dutch submarines

According to Jaime Karremann, editor of Dutch navy monitor portal Marineschepen.nl, the Dutch navy has three submarines which all entered servic...