Oslo class frigate

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The last Oslo class frigate in commission, HNoMS Narvik, during a port visit in Trondheim in 2006.

Career

Ordered:

1960

Laid down:

Launched:

January 17, 1964

Commissioned:

January 29, 1966

Decommissioned:

June, 1998- 1st August, 2007 (planned)

General characteristics

Displacement:

1,735 tonnes normally, 2,100 tonnes maximum

Length:

96.6 metres

Beam:

11.2 metres

Draft:

5.5 metres

Powerplant

Twin steam boilers, one high pressure and one low pressure steam turbine

Power:

20,000 horsepower

Speed:

25+ knots

Endurance:

3900 nm at 15 knots

Complement:

120 (129 max) officers and men

Armament:
	Guns	2 ×	US 3" cannon
		1 ×	Bofors 40mm/70 anti-aircraft gun
		2 ×	20mm Rheinmetall anti-aircraft guns
		2 ×	12.7mm anti-aircraft guns
	Missiles	6 ×	Penguin SSMs (usually not mounted)
	Missiles	1 ×	8-cell Raytheon RIM-7M Sea Sparrow Mk 29 SAM system
	ASW	6 ×	Kongsberg Terne ASW
	ASW	2×3	324mm US Mk 32 torpedo launchers (Sting Ray torpedoes)
	Countermeasures	4 ×	Mark 36 SRBOC chaff launchers

Radar:

Siemens/Plessey AWS-9

Sonar

Medium frequency Thomson-CSF Sintra/Simrad TSM 2633 combined hull and VDS active sonar
High frequency Terne III active sonar

Oslo class frigates are a Royal Norwegian Navy frigate design, based on the U.S. Navy Dealey class destroyer escorts. The forward hull was customized to suit Norwegian sea conditions better (higher freeboard) and several sub-systems were European built. ^[1]

1 Construction
2 Modernization
3 Vessels
4 Resources
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Construction

All ships were built at the Navy Main Yard in Horten, Norway between 1964 and 1966. The construction of the vessels was part of the Navy rebuilding program, approved by the Norwegian government in 1960. Half of the project expenses were funded by the United States as a part of the Mutual Defense Assistance Program, MDAP (a program that ran from when it was passed by the Congress in October 1949 until 1967-68).

[edit] Modernization

In the late 1970s, the class received new armament, most notably Penguin, Sea Sparrow and Mark 32 torpedo launchers. Another modernization was carried out in the 1980s.

During 1995 and 1996, after the HNoMS Oslo experienced an engine failure, and subsequently sank after sailing in heavy weather, the rest of the class was once again modernized. The hulls were strengthened, which in turn increased the displacement with 200 tonnes. ^[2]

[edit] Vessels

Five frigates of this class were built. All of them were modernized during the period 1987-1990. They bear the prefix KNM (Kongelig Norske Marine, meaning Royal Norwegian Navy) in Norwegian and HNoMS (His Norwegian Majesty's Ship) in English.

*Oslo* class — significant dates
Name	Pennant number	Launched	Commissioned	Decommissioned
Oslo	F300	January 17, 1964	January 29, 1966	Sank in 1994
Bergen	F301	August 23, 1965	June 22, 1967	August 3, 2005
Trondheim	F302	September 4, 1964	June 2, 1966	June 2006
Stavanger	F303	February 4, 1966	December 8, 1967	June, 1998
Narvik	F304	January 8, 1965	November 30, 1966	August 1, 2007 ^[1]

HNoMS Bergen in its namesake city Bergen for the last time before being decommissioned in 2005.

The lead ship, Oslo, ran aground at Marsteinen on January 24, 1994, and on January 25 she was taken under tow. She sank on the same day outside Steinneset in Austevoll county.

Stavanger was taken out of service in 1998. It was later used for target practice and sunk in 2001 by a single DM2A3 torpedo launched from the Ula class submarine Utstein (S 302). ^[3] Bergen was decommissioned in August 2005.

On March 17, 2006 at 20:10 CET, the Trondheim ran aground outside of the Lines island in Sør-Trøndelag. No personal injuries among the 121-man crew were reported. The incident was reported from the ship itself, and at 20:30 it came loose again. Water flooded two compartments (paint storage and forward pump room) of the ship. The compartments were sealed and three ships were sent to assist the frigate. ^[4] The frigate was towed to port in Bergen by the coast guard vessel KV Tromsø. ^[5]

All of the Oslo class frigates are due to be replaced with new Fridtjof Nansen class frigates starting in mid 2006. ^[6] Narvik, the last active ship of the class, has been transferred to the Royal Norwegian Navy Museum in Horten. ^[7]