Danish Flexible Support Ship prepares for second anti-piracy tour

Nov. 11, 2009 - PRLog -- Combined Task Force 150, the coalition maritime security operation, commanded by Danish Commodore Per Bigum Christensen aboard the flagship HDMS Absalon, returned from its 6 month tour in April of this year, and is now preparing to be led out by the Danish vessel once more at the start of 2010.

In its previous mission, CTF 150 operated in the Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, the Arabian Sea, Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. It has successfully deterred a great deal of potential danger from rampant piracy in those waters, apprehending Somali pirates just one month into its tour and later rescuing and detaining another group of armed bandits who had been adrift at sea for several days. By the end of its first operational test, the Absalon alone captured 88 pirates. It is fair to say that the vessel, the first of the Royal Danish Navy’s two Flexible Support Ships, has proved a triumphant incarnation of Denmark’s future naval image.

Much of this success has been hinged on the flagship’s versatile design, boasting hybrid facilities, including tactical sealift, logistic support, maritime/joint force command and control and maritime fire support. It delivers well in both sea-keeping and fuel economy, and its 90m long roll-on/roll-off 'flex deck' can embark vehicles up to 62 tonnes.

The RDN first conceived the idea for the Flexible Support Ship in the mid-1990s, recognising the changing needs of worldwide naval activity. As the Cold War tapered off, defending the Danish Straits, the Kattegat, the Skaw and the western Baltic was no longer of urgent priority. Instead, the Navy was to shift its focus to international defence missions, managing sudden crises and aiding peacekeeping operations. Naturally, the transition called for the large number of small ageing vessels in the fleet to be replaced with fewer but larger and more versatile platforms able to support the NATO Reaction Forces. Achieving this within the limited budget was no simple task, but a perfect plan was rolled out and by 2001, the Absalon was placed on order.

Absalon and its sister ship Esbern Snare, commissioned in 2007, are the largest vessels to enter service with the RDN, each measuring 137.6m and displacing 6,300 tonnes. Yet, both ships were designed and readied at under a cost of EUR200 million, akin to a large frigate, thanks to its commercial build specification.

Speaking shortly after his return from the CFT 150 tour, Commodore Christensen praised the Absalon’s progress.

"[The ship] offers us the possibility to take onboard a large staff, has facilities to embark special forces and additional equipment and she can remain on station for extended periods. At one time during our deployment in the Indian Ocean we stayed at sea for 28 days."

"Prior to the deployment, it was put through an upkeep period to prepare it for the high temperatures of the Indian Ocean region,” he added. "A number of theatre-specific enhancement packages were also implemented, specifically additional communications, electro-optic sensors, the installation of two containers with staff facilities on the flex deck, two 11m rigid hull inflatable boats and a 12-man Frogmen Korps team."

Christensen extolled the ship’s other virtues on the tour, ranging from its tidy weapons system, extensive sensor suite, vital communications facilities that handled four times the usual amount of contact with local ships, and a cooling system that comfortably fended off temperatures reaching a sweltering 45 degrees Celsius.

Despite these positives, the Navy has spent the past year evaluating areas of improvement to the vessel, primarily relating to long-haul communications and an upgrade to allow for another helicopter on board.

Commander Verner Strange Dam, Section Chief of the RDN Materiel Command, will be explaining the lessons that have been learned from the first CFT mission and how the Absalon has been enhanced for its second run at the Afloat Support and Naval Logistics conference on January 28th at the Copthorne Tara hotel in London.

For more information about this event, visit www.afloatsupportconf.com, email enquire@iqpc.co.uk or phone 0800 652 2363.

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