OPSAIL 2012 West Ghent Piers cont.

The second ship moored at the West Ghent Piers was the HDMS Esbern Snare (L-17). The tour of the ship was led by a Danish Navy Marinekonstabel, or by my best translation “Seaman”. The once on the vessel the Seaman requested that I not take any pictures, and I was more than happy to oblige. The tour took us from the bridge, to the flight deck, and the internal bay of the ship. The Seaman’s biggest point he impressed upon us was that the Danish Navy is a small one, so while this ship is a frigate it cannot be a single mission platform like we have in the US Navy. 

HDMS Esbern Snare (L-17)

The twin hanger flightdeck of the Esbern Snare

 

This frigate and all that follow her in the Absalon class, are classed as multi-mission frigate or combat support ship, and therefor capable of conducting Anti-submarine warfare, strike missions, and naval gunfire support. What surprised me is how well the Danes have been able to build and field exactly what the US Navy has been trying to build in the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). The Esbern Snare has a weapons deck, known as the “Bathtub” which is designed with five module weapons slots. This allows the standard weaponry of the Absalon class to be supplemented with additional missile-firing weapons. This could be Harpoon anti-ship missiles or Sea Sparrow SAMs. The Esbern Snare is also armed with a BAE Systems 5” deck gun, and a Swiss Oerlikon Millennium 35 mm Close in Weapons System.

You can easily see the the 5" gun and the Millennium gun present on the bow

The interesting point of the Oerlikon is it ties into the ships fire control RADAR, staying user controlled, unlike the automated American CIWS/Phalanx. The biggest take away from the modular special weapons deck was multipurpose “Flexdeck” that runs down the centerline of the ship. This flex deck is designed to support everything from containerized command and control centers, to mine warfare, to containerized hospital support modules. Even without the containerized modules, the flexdeck can support moving 200 marines and support vehicles all deployed from a stern launch ramp.

The stern launch for the flexdeck on the Esbern Snare

 This is all supported by the ships existing compliment of two small boats deployed from a retracable boat davit and two medium helicopters which could be EH-101s or Westland Lynx. The Seaman did indicate the Danish Navy is currently contracting to switch to the SH-60 Seahawk.  From the bridge to the Combat Information Center (CIC) the ship was controlled by state-of-the-art glass displays that can be multitasked from any number of missions and be redundant to other controls.