On October 19, the Danish Navy held a ceremony at the Frederik Naval Base to re-classify two Absalon-class support ships as anti-submarine frigates. After the reclassification, the two ships of the same class retained their names, and their ship numbers were changed from L16 and L17 to F342 and F341 respectively.
The Absalon class is 137 meters long, 19.5 meters wide, and has a displacement of 6,300 tons. It has a plump shape and a simple design. The first ship was named Absalon, and No. 2 was Eisborn Snar. The two ships entered service in 2004 and 2005 respectively. Only from the appearance, it looks like a smaller version of our country's dock, but the weapon is extremely powerful.
The Danish Navy is a staunch supporter of modular design, and the famous Flying Fish-class guided missile boat has a glorious era. Absalon-class support ships continue to adopt modular design. The central weapon area can be equipped with up to 4 4-mounted Harpoon missile modules, and 3 can use the Mk 56 12-unit vertical launch module of the Super Sea Sparrow. In addition, there are 1 127 main guns, 2 dual anti-submarine torpedo launchers, and 2 GDM-008 close-in defense systems.
, but this class of ships with the appearance of a frigate is not a combat ship in the traditional sense. Denmark calls it a flexible support ship. The secret of flexibility lies in the large "flex deck" under the flight deck. The deck has a total length of 84 meters, a width of 10.9 meters and a height of 4.5 meters, accounting for almost 2/3 of the total length of the ship. It can store up to 1,700 tons of speedboats, combat vehicles, command communication equipment modules, container equipment modules, humanitarian disaster rescue supplies, and military use. Equipment modules or modular container hospitals, etc. If it is a tank, up to 10 Leopard 2 main battle tanks can be parked.
Denmark’s original intention of designing this support ship is to "participate in international peacekeeping tasks and tasks" and design a flexible support ship (Flexible Support Ship, FSS), which can be stationed in the joint combat force command and serve as the command center for maritime activities. , Or as a maritime hospital in humanitarian or disaster relief; it can also be stationed by special forces and become a forward base for maritime special operations. It can be described as very versatile, integrating self-defense, troop transportation, and amphibious operations, which is groundbreaking. After the Z1z
Absalon-class support ship entered service, it has participated in long-term overseas missions such as escort in the Gulf of Aden, and its versatility has been well tested. The hybrid design and realistic performance of this class of ships have also attracted the attention of other countries. For example, due to historical reasons, the German Navy did not develop amphibious ships with offensive characteristics. The final product is the world's largest frigate-F-125 class frigate. This frigate has the same characteristics as the Absalon class and serves as a sea forward. The role of the base. A similar design appeared in the selection process of the British Type 26 frigate
. In addition, some ships are also equipped with miniaturized flexible decks to accommodate speedboats, mine sweepers and other equipment. In order to improve the multi-purpose performance of the ship under the premise of limited hull and funds. However, as the founder of the mountain, why did the Danish Navy return to the mainstream? This demand should be related to NATO's positioning of the Nordic countries. Among the four Nordic countries, due to the special fjord terrain and the geographical advantage close to the Soviet Union and later Russia, the main equipment is small combat ships, and a large number of monitoring facilities have been built. The large ships built are limited, and the mission is mainly anti-submarine warfare. After
is repositioned as a frigate, the two Absalon-class support ships will undergo anti-submarine transformation. The main upgrade is to install a high-performance towed sonar system. Due to the huge elastic deck, which can be used to retract the large tailgate of speedboats, the Absalon-class modified towing sonar has a very good foundation, which can facilitate the installation of large-sized winches and shorten the engineering cycle. The connection with the command system is mainly achieved by cables, which is a small project. There is a large helicopter library on board
, which can be used for the operation and maintenance of 2 EH-101 or CH-47 Chinook helicopters. The helicopter operating deck and hangar can perform maintenance, refueling, and ammunition loading operations on the helicopter. The boarding of heavy helicopters is also coordinated with the ashore forces on board. After repositioning, it can continue to operate 2 large anti-submarine helicopters, which is not available in other mainstream frigates.Prepared.
looks back on the 3rd class ships built in the new century in Denmark. In addition to 2 Absalon class support ships, there are 3 Everett Felt class frigates and 2 Rasmussen class polar patrol ships. The 3 Everett Felt class adopts the design of Abu Sharon class. The biggest difference is that there is no elastic deck and no torpedo tube. The main weapons are 1 MK41 32-unit vertical launcher and 2 MK56 12-unit vertical launchers. Development, highlight air defense operations.
After the completion of the Abu Sharon class modification, it can be used in combination with the Everett Felt class, which will also enable Denmark to join the ranks of nations capable of fighting submarines. Rear Admiral Torben Mikkelsen, commander of the Danish Naval Command, said that in this way, the navy can better provide NATO with the required anti-submarine warfare capabilities. However, for a converted ship, it is not just a simple addition of weapons. Due to positioning problems, this class of ships is only equipped with 2 diesel engines and the maximum speed is only 23 knots, which is intolerable for combat ships. Similar problems have also appeared on the US Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships. The two types of ships have outstanding performance against speedboats, but they are not a good general platform. They can only be implemented with peace of mind by installing harpoon or NSM missiles. Deployment task. For this reason, the US military had to build a new Constellation-class traditional frigate, and the second-class Littoral Combat Ship may face an embarrassing situation of storage.
Now, the problems faced by the Abu-Salon-class transformation of the slanted sword may not end there. The originally prepared container-style command and medical modules will face the problem of being idle, causing a certain waste of resources. The ships that follow the trend, such as the F-125 frigate, are estimated to be messy in the wind-all fairy tales are deceptive.
The picture below shows the female soldier on duty on the Absalon
