Little Nations Show how it is Done, Again

How do you do small-ish ships right?

Well ... I am green with envy, because our friend Chris Cavas has spent some time on a class of ship we should have instead of the Little Crappy Ship.

I give you the ABSALON derived IVER HUITFELDT-class frigate, Nils Juel NILES JUEL.

At 6,000 tons, she is right between the LCS and DDG-51. It really should be a DD, but I won't quibble - she is unquestionably built right;

The Danes claim Nils Juel and its sister ships were built for US $325 million apiece — an impressive accomplishment for a ship displacing more than 6,600 tons, fitted with a sophisticated combat and communications suite, armed with Standard, Evolved Sea Sparrow and Harpoon missiles, 76mm and 35mm guns, torpedoes and a helicopter, able to cut the waters at 30 knots and travel more than 9,000 nautical miles without refueling.

The price tag is often compared with the $440 million per-unit cost of the smaller US Navy littoral combat ship, which rises to well over $600 million apiece when the average cost of the LCS mission modules is factored in.

Of note, one of those 76-mm mounts is designed to take a 127mm (5-in) gun giving her a diverse, redundant, and effective multi-mission gun system.

Oh,

most of the ship’s lower decks were designed by Maersk, one of the world’s largest shipping companies, with a focus on efficient, robust designs that are easy to maintain.

“The basic design is a Maersk design, with a hull similar to a container ship,” said Cmdr. Christian Horsted, the ship’s executive officer. “Things are very orderly, very well-arranged. It looks like the people who designed the ships have designed a lot of ships.”

Horsted pointed to the bridge and machinery room arrangements, which leave room to add improvements. “Things are really set up right,” he said, looking up at half-filled overhead wire ways. “The cabling runs leave lots of room for extra wiring for more sensors whenever they’re added.”

Did I say multi-mission? In addition to the guns;

- 4 x VLS with up to 32 SM-2 IIIA surface-to-air missiles (Mk 41 VLS)
- 2 × VLS with up to 24 RIM-162 ESSM (Mk 56 VLS)
- 8-16 × Harpoon Block II SSM
- 2 × dual MU90 Impact ASW torpedo launchers

And she can take a full sized helo.

Check out both the linked articles by Chris - he has more photos than just the two I stole to post here.

Reminder, Denmark is a nation of only a bit more than 5-million. Why aren't we building something like this - a nation of over 300-million more souls? If you didn't catch yesterday's Midrats with Bryan Clark - we talked about it a bit - but I think you already know the answer.