The Danish Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organization (Danish: Forsvarets Materiel- og Indkøbsstyrelse, FMI) placed an order for Raytheon SM-2 Block IIA missiles for the Royal Danish Navy (Søværnet) on October 2, 2018, according to the European online tenders platform Ted.
The Iver Huitfeldt class is a three-ship class of frigates that entered service with the Royal Danish Navy in 2012 and 2013.
According to the announcement:
FMI wants to acquire up to 50 Standard Missile 2 Block IIIA (SM-2) missiles. The SM-2 missiles are self-defense missiles that are used to combat attacking enemy targets. The SM-2 missiles are fired from the Navy frigates. The acquisition can only be carried out through the US Navy via Foreign Military Sales (FMS). The SM-2 missiles are specially designed for shooting air targets [...] The armed forces shall use the SM-2 missiles in connection with the Navy's area air defense frigate to combat attacking enemy targets.
According to the Ted announcement, the total value of the procurement (excluding VAT) is 143 million U.S. Dollars.
The SM-2 Block IIIA will be intended for the Royal Danish Navy's Iver Huitfeldt-class frigates. The three 138,9 meters air defence frigates, Iver Huitfeldt (F361), Peter Willemoes (F362), and Niels Juel (F363) are displacing 6,645 tonnes. They entered service with the Royal Danish Navy in 2012 and 2013. Each frigate can carry up to 32x SM-2 missiles (as well as 24x ESSM). These ships share their Anti-Air Warfare suite with the Royal Netherlands Navy’s De Zeven Provincien-class frigates and the German Navy’s Sachsen-class frigates. The Thales sensors of this suite include the long range surveillance radar SMART-L and the multi-function radar APAR. At least one ship of the class will be upgraded for Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) and Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) to act as a a BMD sensor and offer this capability to the NATO BMD system. An Iver Huitfeldt-class frigate is set to deploy with the French Navy carrier strike group in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean in the spring of 2019.
SM-2 defends navies against anti-ship missiles and aircraft out to 90 nautical miles and an altitude of 65,000 feet.
About the Standard Missile-2
According to Raytheon, SM-2s are the world's premier fleet-area air defense weapons. The missiles are also capable of providing extended-area air defense.
» SM-2's international customers include: Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Spain and Taiwan.
» SM-2 has been integrated with both Aegis and non-Aegis combat weapon systems.
» The missile can be launched from the MK-41, MK-13 and MK-26 launchers.
» SM-2 has an extensive flight test history of more than 2,700 successful flight tests
» More than 5,000 SM-2s have been delivered to the US and allied customers.
SM-2 defends navies against anti-ship missiles and aircraft out to 90 nautical miles and an altitude of 65,000 feet. SM-2 has an extensive flight test history with more than 2,700 successful live firings. The Block III missiles differ from earlier blocks by the addition of the MK 45 MOD 9 target detecting device, for improved performance against low altitude targets.
Raytheon restarted the Standard Missile-2 production line last year to meet the needs of four international customers who aligned requirements and pooled resources to make a 'bundle' purchase through foreign military sales. The Netherlands, Japan, Australia and South Korea are purchasing SM-2 under this new contact.
