The Danish Ministry of Defence’s Materiel and Procurement Agency (FMI) is set to buy 21 new ships for the Danish Navy Home Guard.
The new boats will play a role in protection of critical undersea infrastructure (CUI) and need to have a modular design to accommodate potential future counter-drone technology, as per official documents.
The Danish Home Guard (Hjemmeværnet or HJV) is part of the Danish Armed Forces (Forsvaret) and is chiefly concerned with the defence of domestic territories.
Its naval element has a flotilla of about 30 vessels situated throughout Denmark, ready 24/7 to deploy at one hour’s notice. Staffed by trained volunteers, they are typically called upon to escort allied military ships en route to Danish ports, to aid in sea rescues and assist with diverse marine environment tasks.
The Danish Ministry of Defense Acquisition and Logistics Organisation (DALO) published a new Request For Information (RFI) on its tender website this week seeking suitable bidders to supply the new ships, which will replace their ageing 800 and 850 class vessels.
As per the RFI, the new platform “must generally be able to contribute to the defence of the Kingdom and specifically support the Naval Command with the performance of naval tasks in times of crisis/war as well as more civilian-related tasks in peacetime.”
It added: “The FMI needs the task to be carried out by a total supplier that has the necessary skills and capabilities, which basically includes both design, construction, integration and partial militarization of the vessel.”
It also noted: “The task complex for the new vessel will primarily be support for asserting sovereignty via maritime surveillance. The task involves shadowing, escort and other sailing/operations in unprotected, open waters.
“Another important military task for the Danish Navy is the guarding of critical infrastructure, where the vessel must be able to repel and stop other vessels. The vessel must be able to perform a number of known tasks, and must be able to operate with future equipment, the extent of which is not necessarily known today – e.g. drones and anti-drone systems.
“It is therefore a requirement that the vessel be designed and equipped based on the principle of modularity.”
The deadline for interested parties to respond to the RFI is May 4.
- You can read more details here about the Danish Naval Home Guard and more about the new vessels on the DALO Tender website