On 19 June 1979, Minister of Defense Willem Scholten signed a contract worth 425 million guilders with the Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij (RDM) to build two submarines to replace the "Dolfijn"-class submarines, with the construction of the second boat to commence the following year. Soon, RDM noticed that the new submarines could not be built the same way as the s; it had to use new techniques to build the submarines. Furthermore, the design was constantly modified to incorporate new developments in the submarine world, which led to issues that slowed the building process. Nonetheless, construction continued and on 11 October 1979, was laid down. Two years later, on 24 September 1981, was laid down.