Will build Denmark’s next warships

Must go strong

When the fighting power is to be upgraded, it is not every day that the country’s largest shipping company knocks on the door and offers help. But that is exactly what Maersk has done, and it falls in extremely good soil with Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen.

He calls the offer a « outstretched hand » and you almost feel that he is considering pushing it a little extra long.

Maersk has offered to build new frigates for Denmark at its yard in South Korea.

It is otherwise a place where they usually collect container ships in heaps. But hull is a hull, and the minister is not picky: « Maersk is an acclaimed Danish company, » he says to DRand it must also count, even if the welding work takes place 8,000 kilometers away.

There is speed on the wish list in the defense. The current frigates of the Iver Huitfeldt class are ready for retirement and the defense manager wants new now. Therefore, the timing of Maersk’s offer is almost too good to be true:

« It is clear – as I have stated many times – that there is crucial to the government that we can increase our fighting power rapidly, » says the minister, who has obviously increased the pace in his own language as well.

But not everyone shares his enthusiasm. At the Danish People’s Party and the Liberal Alliance, it sounds almost like a bad idea to park the war plans in South Korea. The arguments range from « too close to China » to « What now when the screw breaks and we are missing a spare part in Esbjerg? »