UK Defence Forum

I do not mean invisibility but rather a reduced radar signature.
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From a report that I saw (BBC, I think), the frigate was moored and the tanker was moving. There was also a suggestion that the tanker was being moved by tugs and that it broke free, but I don't know if that has been confirmed.

Caribbean wrote:the frigate was moored

... and the investigators are being very tight lipped. Stay on this channel

Somebody is going to Jail

In 2017 Feb.
"Norway 'Cannibalizes' Own Frigates, Gnaws at Navy's Backbone"
https://sputniknews.com/military/201702 ... e-problem/
In the last paragraph,

According to the master plan, three vessels are to be constantly operational, with one used for training and another one for maintenance. The vessels are 134 meters long, 16.8 meters wide and maintain a cruising speed of 26 knots.

Sadly, but I guess, Norway will go on with four frigates. I think loss of 1 ship will little affect their long term capability (in short term, activating the ship for training or maintenance will take 1 year or so, which means Norwayan active frigate will decrease from 3 to 2.)

At least they have one submarine more.

Ok, few things.

The frigate was not moored it was moving down the channel, it was radioed repeatedly by the tanker involved and instructed to change direction but declined to do so. It's AIS was not on at the time was being tracked by YTS radar. We have the transcripts of the incident at the time and the responses of the frigate were distinctly amateur.


The ship was then abandoned without all damage control measures being done and while flooding was likely still controllable. The ship was then secured to the shore by lines that weren't properly clamped.


An awful lot of the Frigates command and DC staff are going to be very fired.

Yep, it all happened within 3 and half minutes. Sola had speed of 7 kts, HI of 17 kts. So, Sola saw them about 2-3 km before on their screens- if math serves me right.

WhiteWhale wrote: The ship was then abandoned without all damage control measures being done and while flooding was likely still controllable.

Do you have a source for this? Not that I don't believe you, just that I don't speak the language and English-language sources have been (at best) fuzzy about when she was abandoned and in what shape. My "eyeball assessment" of the initial photos on day 1 was that she looked like she should have been save-able, but I've been hesitant to go with that given that I don't have good information about the period immediately following the collision.

Raising HNoMS Helge Ingstad to take three weeks

An operation to raise the almost-submerged Royal Norwegian Navy frigate HNoMS Helge Ingstad following a collision in the Hjeltefjorden fjord on November 8 is expected to be completed within some three weeks, the navy has said.

Should all go according to plans, the stricken frigate will be loaded on a 140-meter commercial barge and transported to the Haakonsvern base by the first week of December.

Plans for salvaging the frigate got underway immediately after the collision while sea bottom mapping with autonomous vessels around and below the frigate is already underway. According to Norwegian media reports, dredging works that would allow the barge to approach the frigate are also underway.

In an update on November 14, the navy said Helge Ingstad was in danger of sinking even further as steel wiring with which she had been secured to land snapped in the night between Monday and Tuesday.

Following the collision on Thursday, the frigate was intentionally grounded and seven fixing points were subsequently welded onto the frigate’s hull and fixed to anchors on land in order to prevent her from sinking in deep water. However, as the frigate continued taking on water, the added weight snapped the steel wires and the ship sank further with only her mast and part of helicopter hangar still visible.

Norwegian company BOA Management and maritime consultancy DNV GL are now working with the navy to plan and execute an operation in which the frigate will be raised and transported to the Haakonsvern base for a first assessment of damages. The navy has not provided any info on whether the frigate will be repaired or scrapped as the majority of the ship’s systems have spent a considerable amount of time under water.

https://navaltoday.com/2018/11/14/raisi ... ree-weeks/

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Translation of communications:

Radar Images & Audio Log of KNM Helge Ingstad Frigate — Sola TS Oil Tanker Collision

Risikerer flere pengekrav etter «Helge Ingstad»-forliset

Sjøforsvaret risikerer krav om bergelønn etter «Helge Ingstad»-forliset, til tross for at fregatten, som koster minst fire milliarder kroner, har store skader.

https://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/i/p ... d-forliset

According to normal practice "Østensjø Rederi bidro med taubåtene Ajax, Tenax og Velox i bergingsaksjonen" the three tug boats (all from same company) could fetch a handsome sum as it would be assessed according to the value of the frigate "as new". The navy (no insurance) says they had a contract in place and that supercedes any such talk
- more interesting, there is no (single) tug boat involved in the 3D animation
- the initial reports indicated that it was part of the collision (involved, not hit), which could explain the mystery why the avoidance action taken was so restricted

See the first underwater images of the damage on KNM Helge Ingstad

Se de første undervannsbildene av skadene på KNM Helge Ingstad
https://sysla.no/maritim/se-de-forste-u ... e-ingstad/

Frigate’s captain finally speaks out

Six weeks after Norway’s doomed frigate KNM Helge Ingstad collided with a tanker and sank, its commander Preben Ottesen has finally granted an interview. He told Oslo newspaper VG newspaper that he doesn’t feel he shirked his duty, nor does he feel any shame, only sadness over seeing his warship badly damaged, tipping over and mostly disappearing under water.

https://www.newsinenglish.no/2018/12/21 ... peaks-out/

Again the same point I have raised several times (as missing from the reconstructions):
" The heavy tanker had just left the Sture oil terminal, escorted by a tug boat "
- was the evasive action insufficient as there was something else in the way?

Interesting to see them using a car ferry as a powered lighter.

Im not sure if this film is included in SKB,S film looked interesting