The ''Jan Mayen'' class is a

class Class, Classes, or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used d ...

offshore 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 th ...

s used by the

Norwegian Coast Guard The Norwegian Coast Guard () is a maritime military force which is part of the Royal Norwegian Navy. The coast guard's responsibility are for fisheries inspection, customs enforcement, border control, law enforcement, shipping inspection, enviro ...

. The Coast Guard first announced plans for the class in September 2016, to increase their capability to patrol Norway's expansive coastal waters, and to replace the ageing Nordkapp-class vessels. Considerably larger than their predecessors, the hulls of these ships were constructed at the

Vard Fincantieri S.p.A. () is an Italian shipbuilding company based in Trieste, Italy. Already the largest shipbuilder in Europe, after the acquisition of Vard in 2013, Fincantieri group doubled in size to become the fourth largest in the world (2014 ...

Tulcea shipyard in Romania. The hulls were then towed to Norway where the ships were outfitted and tested at the Vard Langsten shipyard. The total cost for the 3 ships in the class is expected to be 7.2 billion kroner ($645 million), one of the largest maritime defense expenditures ever made by Norway.

Design

The design of the ships was contracted to LMG Marin, a Norwegian engineering services company. The hull of the ''Jan-Mayen''-class is designed to be ice-strengthened, to enable independent navigation of icy seas. The deck is large enough at stern to accommodate an

AW101 The AgustaWestland AW101 is a medium-lift helicopter in military and civil use. First flown in 1987, it was developed by a joint venture between Westland Helicopters in the United Kingdom and Agusta in Italy in response to national requiremen ...

helicopter, and it includes a hangar that can house a further two

NH90 The NHIndustries NH90 is a European medium-sized, twin-engine, multirole military helicopter. It was the first production helicopter to feature entirely fly-by-wire flight controls.Perry, Dominic"Rotor club: Our top 10 most influential helico ...

s. These ships are armed with a single Bofors 57 mm L/70 gun for use against surface and airborne targets, as well as .50 calibre machine guns for use against soft surface targets. They will utilize the 9LV Combat Management System for fire control. For navigation, ''Jan-Mayen''-class ships will utilize a Marins-series

inertial navigation system An inertial navigation system (INS; also inertial guidance system, inertial instrument) is a navigation device that uses motion sensors (accelerometers), rotation sensors (gyroscopes) and a computer to continuously calculate by dead reckoning th ...

, along with a Quadrans

gyrocompass A gyrocompass is a type of non-magnetic compass which is based on a fast-spinning disc and the rotation of the Earth (or another planetary body if used elsewhere in the universe) to find geographical Direction (geometry), direction automaticall ...

and a Netans navigation data distribution and computation system. Communication onboard the ship, along with external communications, will be handled by the TactiCall Integrated Communication System, from

Saab AB Saab AB (originally , , acronym SAAB), with subsidiaries collectively known as the Saab Group (), is a Swedish aerospace and defense company, defence company primarily operating from Sweden. The company is headquartered in Stockholm, but its de ...

. The ships are designed for a crew of 100, and will be able to support operations longer than 60 days.

Ships in class

The ships are named after the Norwegian arctic islands of

Jan Mayen Jan Mayen () is a Norway, Norwegian volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean with no permanent population. It is long (southwest-northeast) and in area, partly covered by glaciers (an area of around the Beerenberg volcano). It has two parts: la ...

, Bjørnøya and Hopen.

References

{{Royal Norwegian Navy Norwegian Coast Guard Patrol vessels of the Norwegian Coast Guard Patrol ship classes