Name Esbern Snare Laid down June 2004 Homeport Frederikshavn Length 138 m Launched 18 April 2005 Displacement 6.3 million kg | Ordered November 2001 Commissioned 2007 Status in active service Construction started June 2004 Weight 6,300 tons Builder Odense Steel Shipyard | |
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HDMS Esbern Snare (L17) is an Absalon-class support ship and is, along with her sister ship, the HDMS Absalon, the largest combat vessel currently commissioned in the Royal Danish Navy.
Esbern Snare is part of the first stage of a strategic realignment within the Royal Danish Navy, which is transitioning to focus on international operations, in which Absalon-class vessels will form the backbone. The ship is designed for command and support roles, with a large ro-ro deck, and is to be complemented by the Iver Huitfeldt-class frigates, a derivative of the Absalon-class designed specifically for combat operations.
Esbern Snare was involved in the Beluga Nomination Incident, when she and a Seychelles Coast Guard patrol boat engaged in a failed rescue operation which left four or five Somali pirates and civilians dead. Later she captured a mother ship on 12 February 2011, capturing sixteen pirates and their weapons, as well as freeing two hostages held by the pirates. While patrolling on 12 May 2011 she encountered the pirated dhow NN Iran and attacked her, killing four pirates and wounding ten. Sixteen Iranian hostages were rescued and 24 pirates captured, but the dhow was in a sinking condition and had to be abandoned.
In December 2013 HDMS Esbern Snare and the Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen-class frigate HNoMS Helge Ingstad were sent to the Syrian port of Latakia to escort the Norwegian-registered RoRo cargo ship MV Taiko and the Danish cargo ship Ark Futura, which will transport Syrian chemical weapons to Italy where they will be handed over to a United States Navy ship for destruction in international waters.
