The ''Lindormen'' class is a class of two

minelayer A minelayer is any warship, submarine, military aircraft or land vehicle deploying explosive mines. Since World War I the term "minelayer" refers specifically to a naval ship used for deploying naval mines. "Mine planting" was the term for ins ...

s built for 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 ...

to replace the s that dated from

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The ''Lindormen'' class was designed to lay controlled controlled minefields in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

as part of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

's defence plan for the region. They were taken out of service by the Danish in 2004, put up for sale in 2005 and transferred to Estonia in 2006.

Design

The ships have a steel hull and were originally designed to lay controlled minefields. They have a

full load displacement The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into weig ...

of and measure

long overall Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, and is also u ...

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 . The ships were initially propelled by two

Frichs Frichs is a Danish company based in Horsens, founded in 1854 in Aarhus. Frichs today produce ship engines but started out in the 19th century producing a long range of farm and industry equipment, ships, church bells, cranes and later through the ...

7AX

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 ''Shafts'' was an English feminist magazine produced by Margaret Sibthorp from 1892 until 1899. Initially published weekly and priced at one penny, its themes included votes for women, women's education, and radical attitudes towards vivisection ...

creating . This gave them a speed of They were later replaced with two MTU diesel engines, providing of power in total. The ships were initially armed with two

Oerlikon 20 mm cannon The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons based on an original German Becker Type M2 20 mm cannon design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models empl ...

s - one fore and one aft. In 1985, another 20 mm cannon was added to the fore. In 1997, a pair of

FIM-92 Stinger The FIM-92 Stinger is an American man-portable air-defense system (MANPADS) that operates as an infrared homing surface-to-air missile (SAM). It can be adapted to fire from a wide variety of ground vehicles, and from helicopters and drones as th ...

launchers were also added. The weapons were removed when they were sold to Estonia. Estonian Navy later equipped the ships with

M2 Browning The M2 machine gun or Browning .50-caliber machine gun (informally, "Ma Deuce") is a heavy machine gun that was designed near the end of World War I by John Browning. While similar to Browning's M1919 Browning machine gun, which was chambered ...

machine guns. They are also equipped with two I-band navigation radars, two cranes (one 2 tonne crane fore and one 2.8 tonne crane aft) and two boats. The ships have a large mine deck, sufficient for carrying 50–60 naval mines, but can also be used for diving support, training or command duties. Their initial complement was 27 in Danish service which increased to 29 in Estonian service.

Ships in class

Service history

Danish service

Following the Danish entry into

, the

was tasked with defending the

against the

Soviets The Soviet people () were the citizens and nationals of the Soviet Union. This demonym was presented in the ideology of the country as the "new historical unity of peoples of different nationalities" (). Nationality policy in the Soviet Union ...

during the

. To fulfill this objective, the Danish Navy placed an emphasis on the acquisition of

torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

s, minelayers and

minesweeper A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping. History The earliest known usage of ...

s. The class consists of two ships, ''Lindormen'' () and ''Lossen'' (). The purchase of the cable-minelayers was approved in the 1973 defence bill as a replacement for the

-era s for the

. The ships were built by Svendborg Skibsværft in 1977. ''Lindormen'' served as a command and support ship in NATO's Standing Naval Force Channel (STANVAFORCHAN) in 1989 and again in 1990. ''Lossen'' served with STANAVFORCHAN in 1982, 1985, 1988, 1989 and 1992. ''Lossen'' was also used as a submarine

depot ship A depot ship is an auxiliary ship used as a mobile or fixed base for submarines, destroyers, minesweepers, fast attack craft, landing craft, or other small ships with similarly limited space for maintenance equipment and crew dining, berthing an ...

Estonian service

Both ships were decommissioned by the Danish Navy on 22 October 2004 and sold to Estonia in 2006. They were renamed and . ''Tasuja'' was first placed in service with the Estonian Navy while ''Wambola'' was lent to the Estonian Maritime Academy as a civilian training vessel. ''Wambola'' was held in reserve until it replaced ''Tasuja'' in Estonian Navy service in 2016. ''Wambola'' served with the

Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 (SNMCMG1) is a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) standing mine countermeasures immediate reaction force. Its role is to provide NATO with an immediate operational response capability. History Fro ...

in 2017.

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * *

External links

Estonian Navy

Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group One (SNMCMG1)
{{Lindormen-class minelayer Mine warfare vessels of the Estonian Navy Mine warfare vessels of the Royal Danish Navy Minelayers Mine warfare vessel classes