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Last week I wrote an item about a Danish Arctic patrol ship that visited Halifax April 4-5.

The EJNAR MIKKELSEN (EJMI) is one of three KNUD RASMUSSEN-class Arctic vessels, supplementing the four units of the larger THETIS-class, Lt. Col. Per Lyse Rasmussen of the Danish embassy in Washington, pointed out to Canadian industry.

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The ship is similar in design to Canada’s Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS) being built by Irving but it is smaller. (Some readers on twitter have pointed out the Danish ship is much smaller in tonnage and has less range) What is also significantly smaller on the Danish ship is the cost. Each AOPS is estimated to cost $700 million. The Danish ships are estimated to cost $70 million to $80 million each.

The EJMI’s arrival has sparked a number of questions about why the Danes were able to put to sea three highly capable Arctic ships (albeit a little smaller than AOPS) but at such an incredible savings – $700 million vs $70 million to $80 million. There hasn’t been a lot of specific answers on that from the Canadian government, other than statements that the two types of ships are different and the AOPS will be more capable. Another aspect Canadian industry officials point out is that the KNUD RASMUSSEN hulls were built offshore – Poland – at less cost than if they were built domestically. Then Danish firms were awarded the real high-value work in integrating systems and providing high-tech systems for the ships.

A Defence Watchreader in Denmark also noted another advantage to the ships. All 3 of these vessels now have multi-beam sonars for hydrographic survey. The Greenland waters are far from fully covered for nautical charts, he pointed out. But a multi-beam sonar covers rapidly quite a sizeable area – and the results are just electronically sent to Denmark for production of charts.

(Royal Danish Navy photo above)