Tag Archives: Oslo class frigate

Scratch one light frigate

The Naval Strike Missile (NSM) was launched against the old KNM Trondheim outside Andøya in Nordland, Norway, with predictable results.

The missile is produced Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace for the Norwegian armed forces. Its the next level up from the 1970s Exocet and uses a similarly-sized 125kg (275lb) HE warhead to do its damage. Still in testing its range is believed to be close to 100NM, which is further than Harpoon (only with half the warhead).

The Trondheim was a Oslo class frigate, based on the 1950s US Navy Dealey class destroyer escorts. Just 316-feet long and only 2100-tons full load, she is what would be considered corvette sized today. She had served 42-years with the Norwegian Navy before she was grounded in 2006 in the Lines island in Sør-Trøndelag. Too obsolete to fix, she was decommissioned and used as a test ship. Even though she is still afloat after the direct hit by the NSM, had she been fully armed and stocked with fuel oil, odds are she would have suffered secondary explosions and fire that would have sent her to the bottom.