Denmark Accepts Watercat Patrol Boats From Finland
Marine Alutech has delivered two Watercat 2000 NATO-standard patrol vessels to the Royal Danish Navy as part of a 2023 military sale.
Denmark’s Ministry of Defense formally received the systems from the Finnish shipbuilder at Naval Station Korsør, where it was announced that they will support international missions under the EU’s Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex.
The 20-meter (66-foot) boats, HDMS Hugin (A547) and HDMS Munin (A548), will be crewed by the navy’s 3rd Squadron and the Danish national police.
They will replace the group’s previously operated patrol craft, the HDMS Vikar (A545) and HDMS Stella Polaris (A546), which were originally made as pilot vessels in the late 1990s and integrated into Frontex in 2019.
Copenhagen noted that the HDMS Hugin has already sailed to Frontex’s Mediterranean area of responsibility, where it will join an Italian force-led coalition to secure the EU’s territories in the region.
“Europe’s external borders are also Denmark’s borders. Irregular migration is a major threat to Europe’s cohesion, and it is absolutely crucial that we fight to gain control over the influx into Europe,” Danish Immigration and Integration Minister Kaare Dybvad Bek remarked at the ceremony.
“That is why European countries must stand together and protect our external borders. We should not sit in Denmark far from the Mediterranean and turn a blind eye to the enormous challenges that, for example, Italy and Greece are facing.”
“That is why I am pleased that we have now been handed over the two new vessels – Hugin and Munin – which will be part of Denmark’s contribution to Frontex’s important work at the external borders.”