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The Danish Home Guard was established after World War II by members of the Danish resistance movement. Today the Home Guard’s strength is approximately 75,000 men and women, all of whom are volunteers. Even in peacetime the Home Guard is in a high state of readiness because soldiers keep their uniforms, equipment, weapons, and ammunition at home. In peacetime the Home Guard is administered by the Ministry of Defence in consultation with the Home Guard Command.
The Danish Home Guard is organized in three groups, the Army Home Guard, the Air Force Home Guard, and the Naval Home Guard. When the Home Guard is activated, its units are under the operational control of the three armed services.
Naval Home Guard vessels are located in many Danish harbors. The Guard’s task is to support the Royal Danish Navy, mainly through patrolling duties in coastal waters and harbors and guarding naval installations. The Guard is also responsible for peacetime rescue operations. To carry °tu these tasks, they are equipped with 37 small patrol vessels, with displacements ranging from 20 to 90 tons.
AH crew members live near the harbors, which means that ships can be manned quickly (about 30 minutes).
A new member of the Naval Home Guard, after finish- lng basic naval training, can go on with special education !Te., navigator, radio operator, gunner, engineman, signalman), depending on the man’s interests and unit requirements. Continued training for all hands takes place in the evenings and on weekends. A crew is usually at sea two to four evenings and one weekend per month. There are about four Naval Home Guard vessels at sea every weekend in the Danish straits and coastal waters. On these cruises the main task is crew training. Because approximately 25,000 Warsaw Pact merchant ships and 100 warships transit the Danish straits annually, these cruises closely resemble the Naval Home Guard’s wartime mission. surveillance of ship movements.
Training problems can crop up in a voluntary organization such as the Naval Home Guard. Often crew members miss training cruises. This problem is solved by using crew members from one of the other crews assigned to each vessel. Joint training between the Navy and the Home Guard is difficult to coordinate, because in the evenings and on weekends, when the Home Guard is active, Navy activities taper off.
The Naval Home Guard’s high state of peacetime readiness is important for sea rescue operations. In 1987 the Home Guard was involved in approximately 75 such operations, and in some a Home Guard member served as onscene commander.
The Naval Home Guard “Flotille” in each harbor consists of more than the Guard vessel and its crews. In most harbors, a company-sized unit can be activated to assist in naval control of shipping and to guard harbor and naval facilities, such as communications centers.
Lieutenant Madsen, a 15-year Naval Home Guard veteran, lectures in the Electronics Department at Aarhaus Technical College. He commanded the MHV 95, and his current duties include search and rescue instruction on tactical simulators and at sea.
Th •
e guided-missile version carries a 76- '11rn- gun forward and four Harpoons Wo tw>n canisters) and two 21-inch tor- tubes aft. In the minelaying version, e SAM is carried forward, with a 20- mrn- gun aft.
The glass-reinforced plastic hull conduction saves about 35 tons over con- utional steel construction, equivalent to °ur weapon container/modules. Propul- n ls combined diesel and gas turbine, s°r a cruise speed of 20 knots, a dash ped of 30, and a minehunting speed on ectr*c drive of six knots. There are three ntrollable-pitch propellers (two pow- ^cd by MTU diesels and one by the gas Ufbine) and three rudders, the outer ones Ur>ctioning also as roll stabilizers. An ^itiroll tank stabilizes the ship at low ■’Peed. A 500-horsepower General Mors diesel provides propulsion via elec- fr,c drive. Each of the outboard shafts is 1 tcd with a hydraulic pump and a hy- uulic motor run off its gearing; the gas- Th 'nS ^as only a hydraulic motor. c diesel generators also run hydraulic mps. This combination provides a vary of speeds: The ship can creep on her nerators, run on one or two diesels, or
run on the gas turbine and the diesels. A bow thruster provides the sort of detailed control required for minehunting.
The first Standard Flex-300, the Flyve Fisken, was delivered for trials in October 1987 and is to enter service in 1989. Construction on the second ship, the Hajen, began February 1988.
TThe Royal Danish Navy also is planning to build four fishery protection patrol ships to replace the four Hvidbj0rnen-class (1962-63). They are designated the Stauflex-2000 design and will operate around Greenland and the Faeroes. The design has some valuable military features: a 76-mm. gun forward, a large helicopter pad aft, a good air- search radar for helicopter control, and a good sonar. Depth charge tracks will be fitted aft. The patrol ships will displace 2,600 tons, will be 104 meters overall by a 14.4-meter beam, and will be diesel powered. The maximum continuous speed will be 22 knots (endurance 8,500 nautical miles). The design is arranged so that a gas turbine can easily be fitted after completion to provide more frigate-like performance. Its extensive automation requires only 60 personnel, so there is a lot of spare space in the ship. But without a data bus, conversion for a more warlike mission would be lengthy and expensive.
Sweden: In May 1988 the Swedish government announced a special ASW appropriation of about $85 million. Much of this money will go to increase the effective endurance of submarine-hunting forces. In the past, submarine hunts have
Sweden cut its submarine, the Ndcken, in half in 1988 and installed a new Stirling engine. With this closed-cycle engine, the Ndcken will be faster and be able to patrol without snorkeling.
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feedings / March 1989
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