4-5/2018 NORWEGIAN DEFENCE And SECURITY IndUSTRIES AssOCIATION GiraffeFlexible protection for mobile forces1X Saab Technologies Norway AS saab.no CONTENTS CONTENTS: COAST GUARD VESSELS Editor-in-Chief: 2 Three new coast guard vessels M.Sc. Bjørn Domaas Josefsen NSM 4 US Army tests naval strike missile JSM TRIDENT JUNCTURE: 6 Successful test of the JSM IMPORTANT SIGNALS TRIDENT JUNCTURE 7 Trident Juncture 18 The giant NATO exercise “Trident Juncture” currently taking place in Norway and in the adjoining coastal areas, sends a FSi 9 Norwegian Defence and Security number of important signals. industries association (FSi) First and foremost, the exercise is a strong confirmation that the NATO nations are willing to commit significant resources to NUCLEUS exercising together. All in all, 30 nations will be taking part in 16 Nucleus completes successful first launch the exercise, including the non-member countries Sweden and Finland. This means that practically all of the 29 NATO member BULLETIN BOARD FOR DEFENCE, countries are taking part in the exercise, sending a forceful INDSTRY AND TRADE signal that the NATO alliance is standing fast and strong. This 17 Gripen E in the air with Swiss pylons signal is further amplified by the location of the exercise, way 21 Upgraded TOW anti-tank missile remote in the North, far from the core interest areas of most 23 US DoD and Lockheed cut F-35 price of the member nations. And yet, the countries are choosing to 26 Australian Order for Carl-Gustaf M4 spend their resources on participation in exercises under the T-X AIRCRAFT NATO banner. For many of the NATO member nations, these 27 U.S. Air Force selects Saab and Boeing T-X trainer resources must also come from already very tight defence budgets. EMBT From various quarters, the question has been raised as to 30 European main battle tank whether the USA is supporting the NATO co-operation in the HMG same manner as before. The sometimes less than diplomatic 31 Heavy machine gun for the Norwegian language from President Trump over recent years has given Armed Forces cause for some considerable concern in this matter among the European NATO countries. However, the Trident Juncture MAUD exercise clearly indicates that the USA remains firmly 32 MAUD may not reach home for Christmas committed to the NATO alliance. The Americans are sending a huge contingent to take part in the exercise together with their European allies, and nothing says this more strongly than the US Navy sending its massive aircraft carrier, USS Harry S Truman into the fray. This is one of the biggest aircraft carriers Coverphoto: Sunset for coast in the US Navy, and vessels of this calibre have not taken part guard vessels. in NATO exercises in Norway since the Cold War. The almost 40 years old Norwegian Coast guard For Norway, the exercise is ample confirmation that the vessels of the Nordkapp NATO countries, and not least the USA herself, are recognising class are being replaced. The contract for the new the importance of the Northern regions. The Northern regions vessels was awarded this have always been the cornerstone for the configuration and summer. building of Norway’s national defence. The Trident Juncture In the photo, KV Andenes is sailing through ice floes exercise says clearly that NATO will come to our aid in these in Arctic waters. areas, in the event that a conflict should arise. And what is Photo: FMS more, the exercise offers our allies valuable practice in carrying out operations under Norwegian conditions. MILITÆRTEKNIKK 4-5/2018 1 NEW COAST GUARD VESSELS The coast guard ships will be 136 meters in length, with a beam of 22 meters. The hulls will be built in Romania, while the vessels then will be completed and equipped at the Vard Langsten facility in Tomrefjorden south of Molde, some 200 km south-west of Trondheim THREE NEW COAST GUARD VESSELS On the 25th of June, the Vard Langsten shipyard was awarded In the competitive basis that was the contract for the building of three new helicopter-carrying submitted to the pre-qualified yards for the delivery of the coast guard vessels, there Coast Guard vessels with polar ice reinforced properties. The was also included a reference concept new ships will be replacing the current Nordkapp class, which drawn up by Defence Materiel Maritime was built in the early 1980’s. Capabilities, in collaboration with LMG Marin AS. Vard chose to base its offer on the he contract value with the ship- The new Coast Guard vessels reference concept and has made only a yard amounts to some 5.2 billion The Norwegian Government decided early few modifications to the concept – with TNOK, or 500 million euro, while on that the new coast guard vessels should a view to optimising the performance in the total cost expectation for the project be built at a Norwegian yard. At the outset, order to ensure that the requirements of is around 6.8 billion NOK, or 650 million six shipyard groups were pre-qualified for the specification would be met. euro. The total cost will in addition to the the assignment, but when the deadline for shipyard cost be covering other procure- bidding ran out on March 15th in 2017, Requirements to the new ments, the operating cost for the project, only three had chosen to submit their Coast Guard vessels and allocations for uncertainty and risk. offers. These three were: The Defence has drawn up a compre- The delivery of the new vessels • Weston Group AS, Ølensvåg hensive list of requirements to the new has been pushed ahead a bit, so that the • Kleven Verft AS, Ulsteinvik Coast Guard vessels. The vessels will be Defence is now planning to take over • Vard Group AS - Langsten, Tomrefjord reinforced against ice, particularly with a the vessels during the period of 2022 to Among these three, Varg Langsten view to operations in the northern Arctic 2024. was selected. areas. The vessels must nevertheless be 2 MILITÆRTEKNIKK 4-5/2018 NEW COAST GUARD VESSELS FACTS Vard Group AS, formerly STX Europe, is a shipbuilding concern with head office located in Ålesund. The Italian yard group Fincantieri is a majority owner in the concern. Vard owns five shipyards in Norway, two in Brazil, two in Romania and one in Vietnam. The Vard Group is a major player in the field of building specialised vessels. They have previously built, for example, the KV Svalbard and the new ‘spy ship’ for the intelligence services, Marjata. FACTS THE NEW COAST GUARD VESSELS ARE BEING BUILT TO ICE CLASS PC 6 (POLAR CLASS 6). Polar Class (PC) refers to the ice class assigned to a ship by the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS). Seven Polar Classes are defined in the rules, ranging from PC 1 for year-round The new vessels are being built to the strictest DNV GL requirements for environment protection and emissions operation in all polar waters, to PC 7 for control, including all future emissions requirements that are in planning for future introduction. The Norwe- gian Coast Guard is the primary state authority exerciser at sea, managing the maritime safety and security summer and autumn operation in thin first- together with other agencies with responsibilities in the maritime domain. The Coast Guard currently operates year ice. PC 6 is described as “Summer/ a fleet of 13 vessels, four of which are helicopter carriers, operating in the entire Norwegian maritime inter- autumn operation in medium first-year ice est area, including arctic waters. The vessels are daily performing sovereignty assertion, search and rescue, which may include old ice inclusions”. resource management and oil conservation. capable of operating all over the globe, in additional requirement to host two further medical support is that which is integral sea temperatures from minus 2 degrees to boats for special operations. in or allocated to a small unit, and will +32 degrees C, and under air temperatures The vessels must have towing capa- include the capabilities for providing first from –30 to +40 degrees C, with relative bilities and must be able to stow containers aid, immediate lifesaving measures, and humidity ranging from 20 % all the way up on deck. triage. to 100 percent. Furthermore, the vessels will be Strict requirements are also posed Helicopter capacity equipped to handle oil spill containment, in the area of seaworthiness and seagoing The on-board helicopter, an NH 90, must with both protective gear (supplied by the properties. All operations must be doable be able to carry out night-time as well as Coast Authority) and storage capacity for in sea grades up to and including 5, corre- daytime operations, and must be able to retrieved oil. sponding to a mean wave height of 2.5 take off and land in sea grades up to 5, with to 4 meters. Regarding sailing speed, the wave heights of up to 4 meters. On board Military capacities Defence has set the minimum requirement there will naturally also be a hangar for the While the current Nordkapp class carries a for full speed to 22 knots, which is to say NH 90 helicopter, including the necessary 57 mm cannon on the foredeck as its main that the vessels must be capable of at least service and maintenance facilities. armament, the new vessels are planned to 22 knots or more. The optimised sailing The helicopter deck will have the be armed with a 40 mm L-70 cannon. Work speed for cost-effective cruising will be strength and space to land a helicopter up is ongoing to study the feasibility of over- approximately 14 knots.