SHAPE PAO team reporting from DANEX
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FGS Frankfurt
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We embarked Sunday evening aboard the FRS Frankfurt, an impressive Germany support ship designed to both serve as a logistics hub and a command and control platform for operations at sea.
The Frankfurt is capable of re-supplying other ships at sea with both fuel and provisions. She has large hoses that can be sent over to refuel other ships while still moving at sea. This capability is crucial to sustaining operations at sea without having to send vessels back to port to refuel and take aboard food, thereby enabling ships to stay on station where they are needed most.
The Frankfurt is a large and flexible vessel, at over 150 metres long, 20 metres wide 20k tonnes, and with a compliment of 159.
Monday we were at anchor in the vicinity of Frederikshavn Naval Base, Denmark. Assembled were 50 Vessels from nearly all NATO Nations across Europe and a few Partnerships for Peace Nations. To name but a few that are participating this year: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, England, The Netherlands, and Belgium (for a complete listing). The Ships have assembled for an exercise named DANEX / NOCO 2012, or Danish Exercise / Northern Coast 2012.
The exercise is jointly run by both the Danish and German Navies to train their ships and command staffs for real world operations. The Exercise will continue for much of the next two weeks with scenarios that include asymmetric threats and replenishment at sea (or a "RAS") operations, as well as mine warfare, surface and subsurface warfare.
A key aspect of the Joint Exercise is to practice interoperability between the ships of the various nationalities assembled.
Image on the FGS Frankfurt Am Main (A1412 - German Navy) in the Baltic Sea on Monday 03 September 2012. (Photograph by SSgt Ian Houlding, GBR Army)
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Image on the bridge of the FGS Frankfurt Am Main (A1412 - German Navy) in the Baltic Sea on Monday 03 September 2012. (Photograph by SSgt Ian Houlding, GBR Army)
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Exercise DANEX-NOCO 2012 is a combined Danish-German naval exercise with 15 participating nations and nearly 50 ships operating off the Danish coast from 3 to 12 September. (Photograph by SSgt Ian Houlding, GBR Army)
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The aim of the exercise is to allow the units to experience and train within a multinational naval force. In addition to the ships there are helicopters and aircraft from Denmark, Germany, USA, France and Sweden, as well as a large number of other Navy units. (Photograph by SSgt Ian Houlding, GBR Army)
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