John Currin

15 years in Royal New Zealand Navy

Danish Frigate Suffered Weapon System Failure in Red Sea Combat

by John Currin
5 April 20245 April 2024

KORSOR, Denmark, April 4 (Reuters) – A Danish frigate deployed to the Red Sea as part of a U.S.-led operation suffered malfunctioning of its weapon systems when attacked by drones operated by Houthi militants last month, the captain said on Thursday as the ship arrived in Denmark.

The failure, which until Thursday had only been reported by local defense media Olfi citing a confidential report by the ship’s captain, prompted the government to dismiss its top military official Flemming Lentfer on Wednesday.

Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said the dismissal was a result of a breach of trust, after Lentfer failed to inform the ministry in detail about the incident on March 9 when the frigate Iver Huitfeldt was attacked by Houthi militants.

Denmark Sends Frigate to Join Operation Prosperity Guardian

Despite the malfunction, the frigate shot down four drones, the vessel’s captain and commanding officer Sune Lund told Reuters.

“We had some system failure, or system degradation, which challenged a bit our engagement,” Lund said without elaborating.

“But at no time during the engagement were we left defenseless. We had redundancies on board, so we were able to continue fighting and neutralizing the threats.”

The armed forces posted a dramatic video on social media showing the downing of the drones, the first time a Danish warship had been in direct combat since 1943.

The frigate, which returned to Korsor naval base on Thursday, had been deployed as part of the U.S.-led Operation Prosperity Guardian to help safeguard commercial sea traffic in the Red Sea. It was recalled early from the mission.

Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen and head of the Danish Navy Command Henrik Ryberg had on departure assured that the ship was ready and capable of the mission.

“Leaving the naval base, everything was good,” Lund said, adding that the reason for the failure was still being investigated.

“I feel confident that all steps have been taken in order to mitigate the challenges that we faced during the night,” he said.

Separately, an activated but faulty missile launcher on another Danish navy vessel docked next to Iver Huitfeldt on Thursday triggered the closure of airspace and shipping traffic in the Great Belt strait, one of the world’s busiest sea lanes and the main maritime access to the Baltic Sea.

A founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Denmark scaled back its military capabilities after the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s.

The Nordic country has announced a major boost in military spending to achieve a NATO target of 2% of gross domestic product, from 1.4% last year.

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024.

USS Nebraska and USS Connecticut, 1909

by John Currin
4 April 20244 April 2024

USS Nebraska (Battleship # 14) Underway off New York City, 22 July 1910, shortly after she had received her cage mainmast.

USS Nebraska (BB-14) was a Virginia-class pre-dreadnought battleship of the United States Navy, the second of five members of the class, and the first ship to carry her name. She was built by the Moran Brothers shipyard in Seattle, Washington, with her keel-laying in July 1902 and her launching in October 1904. The completed ship was commissioned into the US Navy in July 1907. The ship was armed with an offensive battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns and eight 8-inch (203 mm) guns, and she was capable of a top speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph).

Nebraska joined the Great White Fleet after it reached the west coast of the United States in 1908 and continued with it during its circumnavigation of the globe. From 1909 to 1914, the ship conducted normal training and ceremonial duties with the Atlantic Fleet. She was deployed twice to Mexico during the Mexican Revolution, in mid-1914 and mid-1916, before being decommissioned briefly in 1916. She was reactivated shortly before the United States entered World War I in April 1917, and was thereafter used as a training ship and later as a convoy escort. After the war, she transported American soldiers back from France, and in 1919 she was transferred to the Pacific Fleet, though she remained in service for less than a year, being decommissioned in July 1920. The 1922 Washington Naval Treaty mandated her disposal, which was effected in November 1923, when she was broken up for scrap.

USS Connecticut (BB-18), the fourth United States Navy ship to be named after the state of Connecticut, was the lead ship of her class of six pre-dreadnought battleships. Her keel was laid on 10 March 1903; launched on 29 September 1904, Connecticut was commissioned on 29 September 1906, as the most advanced ship in the US Navy.

Connecticut served as the flagship for the Jamestown Exposition in mid-1907, which commemorated the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown colony. She later sailed with the Great White Fleet on a circumnavigation of the Earth to showcase the US Navy’s growing fleet of blue-water-capable ships. After completing her service with the Great White Fleet, Connecticut participated in several flag-waving exercises intended to protect American citizens abroad until she was pressed into service as a troop transport at the end of World War I to expedite the return of American Expeditionary Forces from France.

For the remainder of her career, Connecticut sailed to various places in both the Atlantic and Pacific while training newer recruits to the Navy. However, the provisions of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty stipulated that many of the older battleships, Connecticut among them, would have to be disposed of, so she was decommissioned on 1 March 1923, and sold for scrap on 1 November 1923.

Marine Advisers to Help Select Replacement for Naval Service Former Flagship LÉ Eithne

by John Currin
4 April 20244 April 2024

Meanwhile, Mr. Martin said that the two former Royal New Zealand Navy inshore patrol vessels (IPVs) that were delivered to Cork last May to replace the decommissioned LÉ Orla (P41) and LÉ Ciara (P42) are expected to become operational later in 2024, following a programme of work, crew familiarisation, and training.

3rd April 2024

Jehan Ashmore

Marine advisors have been appointed to support the procurement of a multi-role vessel (MRV) to replace the Naval Service’s decommissioned flagship, LÉ Eithne which departed the navy’s base in Cork Harbour last month and awaits to be recycled from an EU approved facility. AFLOAT also adds above at the city’s north quays, the bow of Arklow Fame, previously reported in 2016 as the last vessel to be dry-docked (asides static museum ship Jeanie Johnston) then the state’s largest such facility in Dublin Port, before ‘finally’ forced to close in 2017, in order to facilitate major infrastructure works, since completed. Currently, the only ‘ship’ dry-dock in the Republic is the Rushbrooke based Cork Dockyard (Doyle Shipping Group) which is used by the Navy. Credit: Irish Examiner-twitter

Advisers from the marine sector have been appointed to help procure a multi-role vessel (MRV) to replace the former flagship of the Naval Service, the LÉ Eithne which was decommissioned in 2022.

According to the Tánaiste, Micheál Martin, who is also the Minister for Defence, provided an update on the newbuild replacement, said the work of the marine advisors will inform, “in due course”, a tender competition in line with the public-spending code.

The LÉ Eithne (P31) which had carried this pennant number since its commissioning into service in 1984, however last month, was towed out of the navy’s base basin on Haulbowline, Cork Harbour and is set to be recycled overseas (as the Republic does not have an EU approved facility).

At the time, the 84m vessel was only towed within the harbour as Afloat that day tracked the former flagship taken to a nearby up river-side berth alongside Cork Dockyard. This was rather apt given that this ship-repair/maintenance facility (part of the Doyle Shipping Group) was the former shipbuilding site of Verolme Cork Dockyard (V.C.D.) that built the Helicopter Patrol Vessel (HPV) at Rushbrooke, west of Cobh.

Meanwhile, Mr. Martin said that the two former Royal New Zealand Navy inshore patrol vessels (IPVs) that were delivered to Cork last May to replace the decommissioned LÉ Orla (P41) and LÉ Ciara (P42) are expected to become operational later in 2024, following a programme of work, crew familiarisation, and training.

The former Taoiseach also added that there are also a number of initiatives to counter staffing challenges. Among these, he said, was phase three of a Naval Service recruitment drive.

More from EchoLive.ie, which has a report on these developments.