FS Sagittaire

The Tripartite class is a class of mine warfare vessel used by the navies of Belgium, France and the Netherlands, as well as Pakistan, Indonesia, Latvia, and Bulgaria.

A joint venture of the navies of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, the Tripartite class of minehunters were conceived in the 1970s and built in the 1980s. France built the mine-hunting equipment, Belgium provided the electronics, and the Netherlands constructed the propulsion train. France and the Netherlands originally bought 15, with Belgium buying 10.

All three countries' Tripartite ships contribute at times to NATO's Standing Maritime MCM capability groups (SNMCMG1 or SNMCMG2). 

Ships of the class

France ("Éridan" class, Thales Group is currently upgrading France's Tripartite minehunters)

M641 Éridan 

M642 Cassiopée 

M643 Andromède

M644 Pégase 
M645 Orion

M646 Croix du Sud

M647 Aigle

M648 Lyre

M649 Persée (decommissioned in August 2009)

M650 Sagittaire

M651 Verseau (Ex Belgian M920 Iris) (decommissioned in February 2010)

M652 Céphée (Ex Belgian M919 Fuchsia)

M653 Capricorne (Ex Belgian M918 Dianthus)

Sagittaire is seen here arriving in Leith on Friday 21^st March.

KNM Harstad

KNM Harstad is a purpose-built offshore patrol vessel for the Norwegian Coast Guard. She is named after the city Harstad in Northern Norway.  KNM is short for Kongelig Norske Marine (Royal Norwegian Navy).  

Harstad was built as a multipurpose vessel, but optimised for emergency towing of large oil tankers (up to 200,000 metric tons deadweight (DWT)), oil spill clean-up and fire fighting. The most common duty will be fishery inspection and search and rescue in Norway's large exclusive economic zone. The steadily increasing traffic of large oil tankers along the Norwegian coast explains the need for this type of vessel.  

She visited Leith twice in February, the first time was to pick up the NATO-Submarine-Rescue-System-Submarine.  And she returned a fortnight later on the 16^th February to unload the vessel.  To which you can see here.

 

 

HMS Defender

Hms Defender (the Royal Navy’s most advanced warship) a Type 45 Destroyer is seen returning to Crombie pier on Friday 27th December 2013 for fuel before departing the following day.

She hurriedly sailed from Portsmouth on the 19th December to shadow at least one Russian naval vessel off the coast of Scotland after it sailed near the Moray Firth while on exercise in the North Sea.

The Baltic Fleet vessel is believed to have consisted of several warships including an aircraft carrier and was part of an operation being carried out in the area.

It was described by a source as a ‘Russian Task Group’, suggesting more than one ship may have been involved.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) would not comment on the incident or on whether the Russians had entered British territorial waters, although it was thought to be unlikely.

The Russian military news agency Interfax-AVN reported at the time that the fleet was on route to Syria and took shelter in the Moray Firth when faced with deteriorating weather conditions. ­

HMS Defender is seen here travelling up river in terrible conditions on Friday 27th December 2013:

And again here departing from Crombie on Saturday 28^th December 2013:

Knm Utvær

Type 210 Ula (Type P 6071) Class submarine

The Utvær is the fourth in a class of six Norwegian diesel electric submarines. The boats were constructed during 1989-1992 by Thyssen Nordseewerke in Emden Germany. 

In the Norwegian Navy six boats are currently operational: 

Knm Ula S300

Knm Utsira S301

Knm Utstein S302

Knm Utvær S303

Knm Uthaug S304

Knm Uredd S305

The Ula class in the Norwegian Navy (Hunter Killer's) bear the names of islands in the near proximity of the base. They are quite outstanding in terms of operational capabilities. The cost was 2.4 billion NOK each when purchased and built in the beginning of the 1990's. ULA Class submarine, including on board equipment, weapons, investment in bases etc, had a calculated price per submarine of approximately 1,197 million.

Knm Utvær is seen alongside in Leith having participated in Joint Warrior 13-2

 

 

 

 

 

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