Denmark fires chief of defense, runs into more naval issues

MILAN — The Danish authorities has fired the chief of protection after he reportedly didn’t disclose a number of malfunctions aboard the frigate Iver Huitfeldt throughout its deployment to the Crimson Sea.

“With the challenges we face, a brand new chief of protection is required,” Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen stated throughout a press briefing on April 3, in keeping with native media.

The minister was referring to the emergence of claims, initially made by the Danish information web site Olfi, concerning vital weapon and mission techniques points on the frigate, that seem to have been unreported and ignored for a big time period.

The minister added that with the dismissal of the Flemming Lentfer, Maj. Gen. Michael Wiggers Hyldgaard will take over the function in the intervening time. The officer at present leads the nation’s particular operations command.

Lund Poulsen stated he was unaware of the ship’s defects till these stories had been printed.

The frigate was initially scheduled for deployment to the Crimson Sea as a part of the U.S.-led Operation Prosperity Guardian till mid-April. Nonetheless, Denmark’s Defence Ministry introduced March 26 that the ship was already crusing again residence.

Among the many reported defective tools was the ship’s lively phased array radar, which is manufactured by Thales Nederland.

“Thales has been knowledgeable about FMI’s [the Danish Ministry of Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organisation’s] preliminary investigation of accessible knowledge from Iver Huitfeldt’s techniques from the incident in query throughout a fight state of affairs within the Crimson Sea,” the protection firm stated, in keeping with Danish broadcaster DR. “[It] doesn’t point out an issue associated to the APAR radar.”

Danish protection leaders even have one other drawback on their fingers following an April 4 incident aboard the frigate Niels Juel, a sister ship of the Iver Huitfeldt.

Denmark at present has three Iver Huitfeldt-class and two Absalon-class frigates in service. Every is topic to docking each 5 years. The world across the Korsør naval base, the place the Niels Juel was docked, was closed to air and marine visitors after the ship was unable to deactivate the booster of a Harpoon missile throughout what the ministry described as a “necessary take a look at.”

Whereas the warhead was unaffected, officers feared a situation through which the missile would accidently launch right into a goal space round 1,000 meters (3,281 ft) above the water degree in a southern path from the frigate’s location.

As of Thursday afternoon, authorities had been nonetheless investigating the state of affairs.