Fridtjof Nansen Class

The Fridtjof Nansen Class frigate are the main surface combatant ships of the Royal Union Navy. The ships are named after famous Norwegian explorers, with the lead ship of the class bearing the name of Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian scientist, explorer and humanitarian. Five ships were ordered from Spanish shipbuilder Navantia before the formation of the Union and 15 more were ordered in 2003. (5 units to Navantia and 10 to STX Europe.)

Power generation & propulsion
The power plant of the ship has been completely redesigned to suit the needs and requirements of the RUN and the new systems and elements of the ship. AFLO chose to equip the ship with a clean fuel cell propulsion system developed by the company NAtech.

The power plant of the ship was designed taking into account the current needs of energy for propulsion and other systems on board, so it was possible to assume an increase in power required if new equipment or systems were installed in the future.

For the propulsion of the ship NAtech has developed a solution combining 2 NAtech Statpower System power plants of 35 MW each with 4 NAsoft ST energy servers with 5MW power each. Aditional 3 NAsoft ST energy servers provide the electricity needed for the ship military and support systems.

The propulsion system is fully electrical with four AZIPOD s (ABB azimut thrusters) mounted externally to the main hull. The electricity for the motors is supplied by the power system.

Electronic systems
One of the main design premises was the need to mount Baltic Union made electronic systems in order to full integration with other Armed Forces systems and satellite net.

Sensors
 * 1 x Saab 9LV CMS Combat Management System
 * 1 x Saab 9LV FCS Fire Control System
 * 1 x Saab EOS 500 Electro Optical Fire Control
 * 1 x TERMA SCANTER 4100 Surveillance Radar

Electronic warfare
 * 1 x Kongsberg C-Scope Sonar System


 * 1 x Saab SME-200 Tactical EMS / ELINT
 * 1 x Saab NLWS Naval Laser Warning System

Decoys


 * 1 x TERMA DL-12T decoy launcher
 * 1 x TERMA Loki torpedo countermeasure

Armament
The weapons system of the class are:


 * 1 × 32-cell Mk41 Vertical Launching System w/ 72 &times; RIM-162 ESSM
 * 16 &times; Naval Strike Missile SSMs
 * 4 &times; torpedo tubes for Torpedo 2000
 * Depth charges
 * 1 &times; 57 mm AB BOFORS Mk.3
 * 4 &times; 12,7 mm M2 Browning M2HB HMG Sea Protector
 * 2 x Long Range Acoustic Device
 * 1 &times; spare CIWS gun w/ calibre 40 mm

Air wing
The ships have a fligh deck for:


 * 1 x AS532 Cougar ASUW / ASW


 * 1 UAV

List of ships
The ships are named after famous Norwegian explorers.