Non-Subscriber Extract
Flexible friends: flexible support ships
By Richard Scott and Guy Toremans
27 February 2009
In the mid-1990s, a group of forward-thinking Danish naval officers began to consider how the Royal Danish Navy (RDN) should be reshaped and recapitalised to meet the needs of the post-Cold War world.
A fundamental change in roles and missions - a move towards crisis management and peace support operations far away from home - aligned with the pressing need to replace significant numbers of ageing ships, shaped plans for a new-look surface fleet.
In formulating this fleet renewal plan, the Danish naval staff sought to balance the need for new assets better equipped to contribute to NATO Reaction Forces against the realities of a defence budget that would not allow for anything like one-for-one replacement of existing units.
Put simply, a larger number of smaller units had to make way for a smaller number of larger but much more capable multi-mission platforms. In this way the concept of the Flexible Support Ship was born.
Fast forward to 15 September 2008. At a changeover ceremony in Bahrain, Danish Commodore Per Bigum Christensen assumed command of Combined Task Force 150 (CTF 150), the coalition maritime security operation in the Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, the Arabian Sea, Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
It was the first time that Denmark had taken command of a multinational naval force in this region, with HDMS Absalon, the first of the RDN's two Flexible Support Ships and the physical embodiment of Denmark's future navy vision, taking up the role of flagship.
Image: View of Absalon amidships showing Standard Flex container positions for Harpoon Block II, Mk 56 launchers and specialist communications equipment (Guy Toremans)