The Fridtjof Nansen comes home

The capital city of Norway put its best foot forward when the Fridtjof Nansen, the first of Norway's new frigates, docked in the port of Oslo after a five-day voyage from the shipyard in Ferrol, Spain. The Town Hall Square was the site of great festivities, including salutes fired by the frigate as well as from Akershus Fortress, the hand-over ceremony and a public festival in the evening.

Close cooperation with Lockheed Martin
Pictured on the quay are Frank Tidemann, Jon Håvard Askeland and John Rørnes of Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KDA). The three have played pivotal roles during the six-year process that has led to the first of the five new Norwegian frigates. They are depicted here with several representatives of Lockheed Martin. Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace has subcontracted for Lockheed Martin, cooperating closely with the US company. Timothy D. Fuhr, head of maritime systems and sensors at Lockheed Martin, characterises his company's cooperation with Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace as 'excellent'.

Extensive testing
Among the passengers onboard was Torstein Berge, who had sailed with the Nansen from Ferrol to test the software supplied by Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace. Everything worked according to specification. There will be many more rounds of testing to check all the systems thoroughly, so this was no doubt not the last time one of Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace's representatives will be signing off the Fridtjof Nansen.