Absalon-class support ship
 HDMS Absalon (L16)
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Builders: | Odense Staalskibsværft |
| Operators: | Royal Danish Navy |
| Preceded by: | Falster-class minelayers |
| Cost: | DKK2.5bn(total), (~US$225m/ship) excluding weapon modules |
| Built: | 2003–2004 |
| In commission: | 2005– |
| Completed: | 2 |
| Active: | 2 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | support ships |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 137 m (449 ft 6 in) |
| Beam: | 19.5 m (64 ft 0 in) |
| Draft: | 6.3 m (20 ft 8 in) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 24 knots (44 km/h) |
| Range: | 9,000 nmi (17,000 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h) |
| Boats & landing craft carried: |
2 × RHIBs, 2 × SB90E LCP |
| Complement: | 100, plus aircrew and transients (accommodation for up to 300 in total) |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
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| Electronic warfare & decoys: |
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| Armament: |
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| Aircraft carried: |
2 × EH-101 helicopters or 2 MH-60R helicopters. |
| Aviation facilities: | Aft helicopter deck and hangars |
2 × EH-101 helicopters
The Absalon class are support ships of the Royal Danish Navy, commissioned in 2005. The two ships in the class may be described as an hybrid between a Frigate and military transport ship with multi role capabilities, with the capacity for being transformed from a combat ship with the firepower of a traditional frigate to a hospital ship within a day.
The class is based on a frigate-like design, but built with an internal multipurpose deck (flex deck) and a stern vehicle ramp. The ships can serve as command platforms for a staff of 75 persons (naval or joint staff) with a containerized command and control centre, transport and base of operations for a company-sized landing force of some 200 men with vehicles. Alternatively, the flex deck can be used for mine-laying operations with a capacity of some 300 mines, or be fitted out for mine-clearing operations and launch and recover mine detecting and clearing equipment via a retractable gantry crane, adjacent to the stern vehicle ramp, which also is used for launching and recovering the fast landing craft. Furthermore, the flex deck can support a containerized hospital or simply transport a number of ISO standard containers or some 55 vehicles including, up to 7 MBTs. The ships can carry two LCPs (Storebro SB90E), two rigid hull inflatable boats and two EH101 helicopters.
The ships have been designed by a joint team from The Royal Danish Navy (RDN), The Danish Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organization (DALO) and a group of contractors, primary Odense Maritime Technology (OMT) to The Royal Danish Navys requirements for a multi-mission frigate-like ship with emphasize on flexibility.
The ships are built to the naval standards of Det Norske Veritas (DNV), a international certification body and classification society, heavily utilizing STANAG.
The design is built with the aim of a large margin for growth over life-cycle, to a relatively low cost of ownership, with open architecture for ease of upgrades, with a high degree of automation allowing smaller crews, and utilizing StanFlex modules that can be shared across several ship classes in service with The Royal Danish Navy.
The hulls were built in highly competitive commercial shipyards using the latest development in the industries shipbuilding technology and cost-effective production procedures and processes - the outfitting and integration of sensor-, communication- and weapons systems was primary carried out "in-house" by the RDN and DALO.
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Wikipedia