Denmark’s Protection Ministry made waves with its March 30 announcement of an formidable naval plan that goals to purchase a minimum of 26 new vessels and lays out short- and long-term roadmaps for the Royal Danish Navy’s and the Naval House Guard’s procurement, capabilities, and strategic objectives.
Within the quick time period, Copenhagen plans to safe the Danish dwelling waters, shopping for 21 vessels to exchange the Naval House Guard’s getting old small craft, used primarily for coastal patrol, harbor safety and surveillance. Scores of smaller, extra succesful boats will seemingly exchange the MHV 800 class of 83-ton patrol vessels.
As a part of its native safety push, the Danish authorities will prioritize securing undersea infrastructure, together with important telecommunications strains, electrical cables, and gasoline pipelines. This risk of undersea sabotage was felt keenly final yr when the Danish navy intercepted a Chinese language vessel suspected of severing Baltic underwater telecom cables. So the navy will search to accumulate a first-of-its-kind vessel devoted to underwater infrastructure surveillance and safety. Will probably be fitted with a formidable arsenal of defensive instruments, together with superior sensors and uncrewed undersea autos, to fight an rising grey-zone warfare tactic that threatens important infrastructure.
4 multi-purpose ships might be acquired to fill a curious set of roles. To benefit from Danish Protection’s restricted funds, the ships might be primarily used to comprise chemical and oil spills however may also be used for patrol, surveillance, coaching, and minelaying. The choice comes as Denmark introduced plans to purchase a whole bunch of sea mines to enhance space entry and denial in its territorial waters. Given the shallow waters of the Baltic and Denmark’s strategic place on the entrance to the North Sea, mines and minelaying platforms are helpful for countering rising Russian undersea threats within the area.
The plan sheds no new gentle on Denmark’s subsequent main floor combatant, however does announce plans to start searching for a successor to the Navy’s present largest warships: the three Iver Huitfeldt-class air-defense frigates. Energetic since 2011, they’ve one other decade earlier than their deliberate retirement. The Navy could search to have them solely or partially in-built Denmark. After that, the navy could start searching for successors to its two 20-year-old Absalon-class frigates.
The doc additionally floated the thought of shopping for a second batch of Arctic patrol ships. The primary batch, that are slated to reach in 2029, was initially conceived as a category of as much as six versatile patrol ships. Then in January, Denmark introduced that the vessels could be re-oriented into Arctic patrol ships. Design of those ships is being undertaken by Danske Patruljeskibe Ok/S, a Danish consortium of Terma, Odense Maritime Know-how, and PensionDenmark. The choice to adapt the design, in addition to the potential procurement of a second batch, displays Danish leaders’ rising concern about Russian exercise within the Excessive North and apprehension about U.S. President Donald Trump’s refusal to rule out power in buying Greenland, the Danish self-governing island territory.
Copenhagen can be contemplating shopping for icebreakers with different nations. Such an idea would seemingly take the type of a shared Nordic bolstered icebreaker design, which may very well be used to clear paths for business vessels or attain distant outposts and settlements throughout the Polar area, notably as local weather change opens new routes. Whereas much less of a right away want, this plank of the overhaul plan is a nod to Moscow’s 41 icebreakers, seven of that are nuclear-powered, constituting not solely the world’s largest such fleet however one virtually on par with everything of the NATO alliance.
