Danish Consortium Grows to Complete Redesigned Plan for Arctic Patrol Ships

 

The consortium of Danish companies set up to develop the next-generation patrol ships for the Danish Armed Forces reports it is being taken over by Semco Maritime as it stands ready to meet the challenges to redesign and build the new ships. The group was selected in 2023 for the project but the government has recently decided to shift the focus to new ships better suited for the Arctic.

"The situation has changed in several areas since the decision to design new patrol ships was made in 2021,” said Minister of Defense Troels Lund Poulsen. At the end of January, he said, “We are in a significantly changed security policy situation, and the Danish Armed Forces are demanding a replacement for the aging Thetis class. The contracting parties have therefore agreed to reorient the existing patrol ship project to focus on the Arctic ships."

The Danish patrol ships were originally designed to operate in the Baltic Sea and Danish waters. According to the minister, the mission changed after Sweden and Finland joined NATO. He said there would be more countries and assets available for the security patrols in the Baltic.

While the Baltic remains a Danish focus, the Defense Command has also expressed a desire for an early replacement of the current Arctic ships, the existing Thetis class. Commissioned in 1991, they are four 3,500-ton displacement patrol ships deployed by the Royal Danish Navy. The goal was shifted to design modern ships that will be more efficient and require less maintenance as replacements for the aging Thetis class. The new ships will strengthen Denmark’s support of Greenland as well as its operational capacity in the Arctic and the North Atlantic.

Poulsen said in January, "The work so far has by no means been wasted. A reorientation makes it possible to get started more quickly with the design work on the Arctic ships. It is expected that sub-elements from the design work of the patrol ships and experiences from the work with a Danish construction strategy can be reused."

The partnership then known as Danske Patruljeskibe (Danish Patrol Ships) received a contract for the front-end engineering and design activity for a new class of flexible patrol ships in June 2023. It consists of Denmark's largest defense company Terma, Odense Maritime Technology, a world leader in the design of military ships with ongoing frigate projects in, among others, the UK, Poland, and Singapore, one of Denmark's largest pension funds and investors in infrastructure, PensionDanmark.

Semco Maritime has entered into an agreement to take over ownership of the group now known as Danske Flådeskibe. The consortium says it is ready to undertake the entire task of delivering and servicing new Arctic patrol ships and future frigates for the Danish Armed Forces.

“With Semco Maritime as part of Danske Flådeskibe, we can deliver the entire package to the Danish Armed Forces when it comes to both state-of-the-art frigates and Arctic ships – from design, equipment and launching to service of the finished ships,” said Hans Schneider, CEO of Danske Flådeskibe.

Semco Maritime they note has existing facilities and good expansion opportunities at the Port of Esbjerg, which has a good strategic location and status as a NATO port after significant investments in the infrastructure. The group says it expects to deliver the first ship to the Danish Navy as early as 2029.