The Royal Norwegian Navy’s new fleet tanker HNoMS Maud, which began its maiden deployment in September this year, is back at sea again after experiencing technical issues.
The ship had been operating off the coast of the UK as part of the NATO Standing Maritime Group 1 (SNMG 1) when it experienced the technical issues.
According to the Norwegian defense ministry, Maud spent two weeks alongside in Portsmouth, undergoing repairs to its integrated platform management system (IPMS), which facilitates automation, control and monitoring of the vessel’s equipment.
Commodore Trond Gimmingsrud, the head of the Royal Norwegian Naval Fleet, said the crew and technicians were able to address some of the problems to allow the ship to return to sea, but more work will have to be undertaken once the ship is back home to fully rectify the issue.
Maud got underway from Portsmouth on November 8 to rejoin SNMG 1, in which the ship is tasked with providing an international fleet of ships with fuel.
As we previously wrote, the IPMS issue is the latest in a series of problems the new ship has encountered since being ordered from South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) in 2013. It was delivered with a two-year delay in 2018 and headed home shortly thereafter.
Once in Norway, it was barred from returning to sea by the classification society DNV GL due to numerous safety shortcomings. These were resolved in 2020 and the ship sailed to the Netherlands for unplanned work on the replenishment rigs, which were not completely installed in South Korea. The final work was expected to take place in Norway but the COVID-19 pandemic complicated the undertaking and officials decided it would be best to have the ship undergo the work in the Netherlands.
Bosch Rexroth supplied the rigs for the ship, as well as for the four Royal Navy Tide-class tankers, which share the scalable BMT AEGIR design platform with HNoMS Maud.
Named after Queen Maud of Norway, HNoMS Maud is the largest Norwegian Navy ship with a displacement of 26,000 tons.
The fully winterized ship features a helicopter flight deck and hangar and a 48-bed hospital capability.
