In the beginning of the nineties, the end of the Cold War caused the Belgian government to restructure the Belgian Armed Forces in order to cope with the changed threats. This led to a reduction in the size of the Armed Forces. With regards to the Belgian navy, these cutbacks meant that one was taken out of service and that three s were sold to France. In 2002, the government decided to impose a "single structure" on the armed forces in which the independent Belgian "Marine Royale" ceased to exist. The former Navy became the Belgian Naval Component (COMOPSNAV) of the Armed Forces; it is also generally referred to as "the Belgian Navy".