The ''Diana'' class, also known as the Minor Standard Craft Mk II, are a class of six

patrol boat A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval ship, naval vessel generally designed for Coastal defence and fortification, coastal defence, Border control, border security, or law ...

s in service with the

Royal Danish Navy The Royal Danish Navy (, ) is the Naval warfare, sea-based branch of the Danish Armed Forces force. The RDN is mainly responsible for maritime defence and maintaining the sovereignty of Denmark, Danish territorial waters (incl. Faroe Islands and ...

. Built by Faaborg Værft A/S, the ships displace and have a maximum speed of knots. The class was intended to replace the aging ''Barsø'' class of patrol boats. The

lead ship The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships that are all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels. Large ships are very comple ...

of the class, , entered Danish service in 2007. The ''Diana''-class vessels were initially tasked with

fisheries protection Maritime patrol or maritime reconnaissance is the task of monitoring areas of water. Generally conducted by military and law enforcement agencies, maritime patrol is usually aimed at identifying human activities. Maritime patrol refers to active ...

, patrol and

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

but are currently tasked with international and combat operations.

Design and description

The ''Diana'' class, also known as the Minor Standard Craft Mk II, are a series of

patrol vessel A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval vessel generally designed for coastal defence, border security, or law enforcement. There are many designs for patrol boats, and they ...

s constructed of

glass reinforced plastic Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cl ...

. They measure long with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Radio beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...

of and a draught of . They are powered by two MTU 16V396 TB94

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

s turning two shafts with

controllable pitch propeller Controllability is an important property of a control system and plays a crucial role in many regulation problems, such as the stabilization of unstable systems using feedback, tracking problems, obtaining optimal control strategies, or, simply p ...

s creating . This gives the patrol vessels a maximum speed of . The ships mount two machine guns and have a

complement Complement may refer to: The arts * Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave ** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-class collections into complementary sets * Complementary color, in the visu ...

of 9, with accommodation for 15 total. The ''Diana''-class patrol vessels each have space for a

StanFlex StanFlex (also known as STANFLEX or Standard Flex) is a modular mission Payload, payload system used by the Royal Danish Navy. Originally conceived during the 1980s as a way of replacing several ship class, classes of minor Warship, war vessel wit ...

container, allowing for quick mission re-configuration.

Ships

Construction and service history

The class was ordered from Faaborg Værft A/S on 3 December 2004, with the

hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

and machinery constructed by

Kockums Saab Kockums AB is a shipyard headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, owned by the Swedish defence company Saab AB. Saab Kockums AB is further operational in Muskö, Docksta, and Karlskrona. While having a history of civil vessel construction, Kocku ...

at their yard in

Karlskrona Karlskrona (, , ) is a locality and the seat of Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with a population of 66,675 in 2018. It is also the capital of Blekinge County. Karlskrona is known as Sweden's only baroque city and is host to ...

, Sweden. Upon entering service, the ''Diana''-class patrol vessels were used for

, patrol and

. The six vessels of the ''Diana'' class are assigned to the

's 2nd Squadron, which is tasked with international and combat operations.

Notes

Citations

References

* *

External links

* * {{Diana-class patrol vessel Patrol boat classes Patrol vessels of Denmark