Danish navy seeks new warships to fill a 16-year-old gap

The Danish Navy wants smaller, heavily armed combat vessels to help protect Danish waters and meet NATO commitments, according to a previously secret defence document reviewed by DR.

The proposed ships would be smaller than corvettes and frigates but powerful enough to counter drones and shoot down cruise missiles. The vessels do not exist yet. The document, signed by Rear Admiral Søren Kjeldsen, head of the Danish Navy Command, says there is an operational need for combat ships smaller than frigates.

The ships would help monitor Russian warships and the so-called shadow fleet in Danish waters. Johannes Riber, a researcher at the University of Copenhagen’s Centre for Military Studies and a former naval officer, says smaller vessels are needed to deter activity in the strategically important Danish straits.

The Baltic Sea has become a flashpoint in the stand-off between NATO and Russia, Riber says, citing cable breaks and suspected hybrid attacks. He says smaller combat ships could also escort forces and help them reach the Baltic states in a serious crisis or conflict.

The Navy’s current primary responsibility in Denmark’s internal waters rests with five Diana-class patrol vessels. They are armed only with a heavy machine gun. The proposed ships would have more advanced systems, including an air-surveillance radar, short-range air-defence missiles and artillery.

The Navy has previously described the Diana-class vessels as too small, lightly built and lightly armed to provide credible deterrence. They have been in active service since 2007, and the Navy wants to replace them.

The proposed vessels would also address a gap created in 2010, when a cost-cutting decision led the armed forces to scrap or sell 14 Flyvefisken-class warships. The ships could be equipped for a range of missions, including anti-submarine warfare and air defence.

The decision drew a rare warning from Søe-Lieutenant-Selskabet, an association of current and former naval officers. It was only the third warning the group had issued to the government and defence spokespeople in its more than 200-year history. The association said Denmark could be left without even a modest defence of its home waters if the ships were scrapped.

Riber says the need for smaller warships has returned as Russia has again become a maritime threat. He says the vessels would be well suited to escorting and fighting their way into the Baltic states if Danish troops needed support there.

Jeppe Teglskov Jacobsen, a strategic adviser at the National Defence Technology Centre and a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies’ Centre for Peace and Conflict Research, also supports filling the gap. The Navy’s new plan proposes that Denmark have six frigates, but Jacobsen says they cannot carry out every task across the Danish realm.

The Navy’s current patrol vessels are armed only with heavy machine guns, while the proposed ships would carry more advanced weapons and surveillance systems.