New Danish Ship Can Fight Far From Home By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS, ABOARD HDMS ABSALON
At first glance, Denmark’s new warship — Absalon — looks like a standard, modern frigate. But discerning naval eyes will notice the “L” pennant number on the ship’s high, stealthy hull, rather than the “F” that denotes frigates in NATO’s standard system. L usually marks an amphibious ship.
The designation hints at the multiple roles intended for the Danish Navy’s Flexible Support Ships, a new concept that incorporates command-and-control systems for joint international force commanders, cargo bays for armored and military vehicles, a flight deck for large helicopters, and weapons to support troops ashore.
The ship spent part of October cruising U.S. and Canadian waters — including stops in Norfolk, Va., Baltimore, Md., Halifax, and Nova Scotia as well as steaming nearly to the equator — to test out its seakeeping qualities and air conditioning systems. The tour also gave Danish industry an opportunity to show off its wares, similar to previous recent visits by new Dutch and German frigates.
The Facts:
FRIGATE FACTS
Flexible Support Ships Absalon (L 16) and Esbern Snare (L 17)
Length: 137 meters
Beam: 19.5 meters
Draft: 6.3 meters
Aircraft: Two EH101 helicopters.
Machinery: Two MTU800 M/70 diesel engines. Two variable-pitch propellers.
Crew: 100, with berths for 70 more.
“We want a ship that can influence the land battle,” said Rear Adm. Nils Wang, head of the Danish Navy. The new ships, he said, give Denmark a “littoral expeditionary capability with a global reach.” The Absalon, delivered in 2004, and its sister ship commissioned earlier this year, the Esbern Snare, are an attempt to combine a traditional frigate with a roll-on/roll-off supply ship, Wang said. The ships feature a 5-inch gun forward and have a missile deck amidships fitted with Harpoon surface-to-surface missiles and Evolved Sea Sparrow anti-air missiles.
But the main armament actually is below decks. A 90-meter-long, 30-meter-wide, two-deck-high “flex deck” can carry wheeled vehicles and small fast insertion craft, or can be set up with modular and multipurpose rooms. The deck can hold 10 Leopard 2 main battle tanks; as many as 54 smaller vehicles have been loaded on the deck, a ship’s officer said. Modular rooms can be fitted in only a few hours, officers said, including plugging computers into the ship’s information technology system.
Vehicles are loaded on a large ramp built into the stern. Although the deck cannot be flooded as on amphibious transport dock ships, a smaller ramp opens to allow an overhead rail system to extend out over the water, enabling small craft such as fast insertion vessels to be raised or lowered to the ocean.
The ship’s speed tops out around 24 knots, several knots slower than frigates designed primarily for anti-submarine warfare. But with a range of more than 9,000 nautical miles, the Absalon can operate worldwide, and Wang noted it would easily operate with an amphibious group.
Under a five-year defense plan approved last year, Denmark will build three more frigates to a modified Absalon design, with a top speed of about 28 knots, but lacking the flex deck.
Danish Transformation The Flexible Support Ships represent Denmark’s transformation to a “more relevant, deployable” force for international operations, Wang said. He noted the process was driven in Denmark by military leaders, not politicians.
“Transformation military leaders have to lead the change,” he said. He called the move the “greatest reform in the Danish military since World War II.”
A key to transformation, Wang said, is a determination to “butcher ‘holy cows’” — cutting capabilities and communities once thought sacrosanct. The Navy’s big sacrifice, he said, was the submarine force, while the Air Force dropped its ground-based anti-missile system and the Army its rocket bombardment capability.
The services also have drastically altered their organizational structures, Wang noted. Materiel commands belonging to the three services have been combined into unified joint commands to handle materiel, personnel, information technology and health issues, he said. The result “leaves the service chiefs in command of units and operational capabilities,” he said.
Several officers aboard the Absalon spoke with some satisfaction about the ruthlessness with which internal opposition to the changes was overcome, including the necessity of replacing and in some cases retiring those who opposed the transformation moves.
“It’s something that needed to be done,” one officer said.
The speed of the transformation effort is evident in the rapidity with which the new Flexible Support Ships were conceived, designed and built. Design work began in 2000, and the first steel was cut for the ships in April 2003 at Odense Shipyard in Lindo, Denmark. Absalon was delivered in about a year ago, and the Esbern Snare was delivered in April.
They are the first naval vessels built by Odense, a commercial yard. The decision to build to commercial standards has some penalties, officers aboard the Absalon admitted. One example came to light earlier this year, when the Absalon was forced to cut short a cruise after weld cracks developed around some pumps.
But officers said the advantages of commercial construction standards are evident in the speed of construction and the price: $355 million for both ships. While costs for the combat system and most sensors are not included, that price compares favorably with the U.S. Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ships, intended to cost $220 million each, with mission modules estimated at $100 million.
Denmark’s military transformation is being done without an overall budget increase, Wang said. “The redistribution of resources is a zero-sum game.”
To afford the new ships, the Danish Navy is taking delivery without some equipment installed. But funding for the combat system, full sensor suite, remaining weapons and hospitalization containers is being included in future budgets. Both ships are to be fully outfitted by early 2008. •
E-mail:
ccavas@defensenews.com.
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Note: AFAIK the Absalons have a top speed of 27 knots, as they performed better than expected. The Frigates (as in an F), will feature VLS and APAR or SAMPSON instead of the RORO deck.
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