Hdms Absalon

The two Absalon Class vessels, built by Odense Steel Shipyard for the Danish Navy, are flexible support ships (combat support ships). The ships can be equipped for naval warfare, land attack, strategic sealift missions or as a command platform. They can also be configured as hospital ships or for emergency disaster relief.

Hdms Absalon (L16) was launched in February 2004 and commissioned into the Royal Danish Navy in July 2004. The second of class, Esbern Snare (L17), was launched in June 2004 and commissioned in February 2005.   Hdms Absalon (L16) and her sister ship Hdms Esbern Snare (L17) are the biggest ships ever to serve in the Royal Danish Navy (RDN), and are the two members of the Absalon class flexible support ships.  The two ships in the Absalon class, named after Danish archbishop and statesman Absalon, received full operational status in 2007.

The Absalon class has a crew of 100. Permanent accommodation is also included for up to 70 additional personnel such as combined or joint task force headquarters staff. Container accommodation for an additional 130 forces personnel can be installed on the flex deck. The ship has galley and personnel facilities for up to 300 embarked passengers and crew.

A containerised modular hospital can be installed on the flex deck. The hospital has a throughput capacity to treat 40 emergency patients a day or up to ten major surgical

The ships are the first in a series of RDN vessels tasked with carrying out new types of missions, and are to form the backbone of the international operations that the RDN is increasingly focusing on.   

The Absalon-class ships are primarily designed for command and support roles, with a large ro-ro deck, while the following three frigates of the Ivar Huitfeldt-class will be equipped for a combat role and potentially equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles, a first for the Danish Navy. Although similar to the Absalon-class vessels, the frigates will not have a large ro-ro deck.   Scheduled for completion in 2008 and 2009, the frigates are to receive full operational status in 2010 and 2011, replacing the Niels Juel-class corvettes.

Hdms Absalon is seen here arriving in Leith to participate in Joint Warrior 13-2

 

Hdms Hvidbjørnen

Hdms Hvidbjørnen (translated as polar bear) is a Thetis-class ocean patrol vessel belonging to the Royal Danish Navy.

The Thetis-class ocean patrol vessels or Ocean patrol frigates, also called Stanflex 3000, is a class of large patrol vessels built for the Royal Danish Navy. The class comprises four ships, all built and commissioned in the early 1990s. The ships' tasks are mainly maintenance of sovereignty, search and rescue, fishery inspection and support to local (mainly Greenlandic) authorities. The operation areas are normally Greenland and the Faroe Islands, but the vessels also operate near Iceland on transit between Greenland and the Faroe Islands, and near Denmark.

The ships each have double-skinned ice-reinforced hulls so that the ships can break through 80 centimetres (31 in) of solid ice. Thetis has undergone a conversion, first to participate in the CANUMAS-project, and later to become the fleet's flagship, a role that ended in SEP 2007. The Danish Navy has retrofitted the vessels with 12.7-millimetre (0.50 in) heavy machine guns, Stinger launchers and decoy launching systems. The ships can carry and use multiple StanFlex mission modules.

In the most common role (ocean patrol), the standard base crew is 47 persons and 16 conscripts, but in either command ship role or more warfare heavy roles, the base crew is expanded to 60 persons plus 4 aircrew for the Westland Lynx Mk.90B and one or two doctors. Accommodation is available for 101 personnel in all. 

 Hdms Hvidbjørnen is seen here alongside in Leith before participating in Joint Warrior 13-2