Changed mission priorities and revised threat assessments have seen the Royal Danish Navy (RDN) put greater weight on the combat capabilities to be incorporated in its new flexible patrol ships, navy and industry officials have confirmed to Naval News.
Originally intended for sovereignty patrols and environmental monitoring/pollution control, the new patrol ships are now expected to feature both point defence and offensive anti-surface warfare missile systems as a core fit. This change in emphasis was confirmed as part of a system requirement review process completed earlier this year.
The Danske Patruljeskibe K/S consortium – made up of Terma, Odense Maritime Technology (OMT) and PensionDanmark – was in June last year awarded a contract by the Danish Defense Acquisition and Logistics Organisation (DALO) to undertake ‘front end’ engineering and design activity for a new class of flexible patrol ship for the RDN. The two-year contract represents the first part of a long-term plan to deliver the RDN a class of up to six flexible patrol ships and at the same time reinvigorate Denmark’s national capability for warship design and build.
Speaking to Naval News on 21 August at the DALO Industry Days event in Ballerup, Hans Schneider, CEO of Danske Patruljeskibe, said that the navy’s mission focus had changed over the last year. “We have worked with DALO and the navy to understand the design requirement, and the different mission sets that are being demanded of the ship,” he said. “This system requirement review process concluded in March, and we are confident that we have a design that matches up to what the navy wants.”
“The [design] has now evolved into a more capable military vessel than was originally envisaged. So it was born as a patrol ship, but it has now become more of a ‘combatant’ capable of undertaking [military] mission tasks as well as serving as a patrol ship. The modular philosophy of the ship remains. But the ship will now have air and surface warfare capabilities and a sensor package that will come closer to the capability of a frigate.”
Hans Schneider, CEO of Danske Patruljeskibe
Talking to Naval News at the same DALO Industry Days event, Captain Steen Balslev, head of the naval systems division in DALO, said that his greater emphasis on military missions reflected the deteriorating security situation:
“It’s going to have a more warfighting role. To be more specific, we are going to integrate all the military packages – weapons and sensors – into the ship.”
Captain Balslev added that work was underway to complete the system design review for the new class. “That process will be concluded around the end of September. So by the start of the fourth quarter we will be able to start basic system-level design.
“The consortium have already done a lot of preparatory concept work so we have a good basis from which to start on where to put things.”
System-level design activities which are planned to run through to mid-2025. Danske Patruljeskibe will in parallel begin to select major platform and systems suppliers, and develop a preferred strategy for the ship construction phase.
“The intention is to mature that system design to a level where we can close a contract with DALO by May/June of next year”, Schneider told Naval News. “We would then enter an 18-month detailed design phase during which we would bring on the supply chain, and get the necessary production capacity ready to start manufacture at the beginning of 2027.”
Maximising the role of Danish industry – to guarantee sovereign security of supply and generate new employment opportunities – has been identified as a key objective by the Danish government. According to Schneider, the build philosophy will be highly modular and capitalise on OMT’s knowledge of digital design, but the construction strategy and shipbuilding partners remain to be determined. “There is a dialogue ongoing with various vendors where we are discussing different shipbuilding options – for example, do you focus production around one site, or do you have blocks built at a number of sites and then brought together for outfit and integration?
“We are talking with the major shipbuilders and shiprepairers in Denmark to find out how our ideas on different production models fit in with their set-ups. We are also engaging with companies outside the traditional maritime industry who have relevant steel skills. The intention is to move into a competitive phase later this year.”
