The United Kingdom and Norway are considering a joint acquisition of up to 30 new vessels designed for coastal operations, as part of a wider effort to strengthen interoperability and capability in the North Atlantic and High North.
The initiative, known as the Joint Commando Craft programme, is intended to deliver a new class of vessels capable of transporting personnel and equipment, including insertion and extraction in demanding littoral environments. The vessels are expected to offer improvements in speed, endurance, survivability and manoeuvrability over existing platforms, while also supporting sensor operations, target designation and enhanced situational awareness.
For the UK, the vessels would support the Royal Marines under the UK Commando Force construct, while Norway intends to use them within its Coastal Ranger Command. The capability is designed to enable operations across a wide range of environments, from open ocean to shallow coastal waters.
“Norway and the United Kingdom have a very close defence cooperation. By developing a joint capacity for coastal operations, we strengthen our ability to operate together in the North Atlantic and the High North,” said Norwegian Defence Minister Tore O. Sandvik.
The proposed vessels are expected to be up to 24 metres in length, with a displacement of up to 60 tonnes, and capable of operating independently for several days. The programme aims to extend operational reach and flexibility for both nations’ commando forces.
A Request for Information has been issued to industry as part of the early-stage market engagement process, seeking data on available designs, technical solutions, cost estimates and delivery timelines. The vessels are expected to be built in Norway, with the RFI also assessing the capacity of domestic shipyards.
“The issuance of the Request for Information is an important step forward for the Joint Commando Craft project, as we now consider possible solutions for this important capability,” said Lieutenant Colonel Rob Ginn.
The programme sits within a broader framework of UK-Norway defence cooperation under the Lunna House Agreement, which includes collaboration on maritime systems, uncrewed mine-hunting, underwater warfare and wider interoperability initiatives.
As with T26 it makes so much sense to do this with Norway. It’s probably also worth the UK looking at some form of joint defence bonds with Norway or simply issuing UK defence bonds that Norway’s sovereign wealth fund can by.
The UK seems to have gone out of its way to Allie and assist most nations around the world from Singapore to Qatar and Norway that have sovereign wealth funds. Defence bonds would seem like a natural way to leverage that for both sides.
Norway is the key to our defence even if the average bodin the street would look blankly at such a motion. The greater cooperation with them and Scandinavian Countries generally the better, we just have to get capability sorted to do so. I fear the only action we will get from Trump now should Russia try it on in Scandinavia is to use it as an excuse to take Greenland.
Fortunately the Nordics have £££££ and the will generated by Mad Vlad antics coupled with a lack of desire to return to Cold War power play.
I like the sound of that, especially Norwegian finance for our projects.
Now we need to sell them GCAP.
Bigger than the Archer and Cutlass-class, will they be commissioned ships?
No, from the requirements I would conclude that this JCC supersedes the requirement for the Commando Insertion Craft. These will theoretically replace LCVP and so be RM boats not ships, though the operating concept is of course very different.
The requirements are similar enough that all of the CIC competitors’ (BAE, Leidos, Griffon and sort of BMT) designs will still be applicable, though the upper limit on size is slightly greater. I would even say that the new requirements are closer to the published concepts than CIC was (particularly BAE and Leidos) given the equal weighting given to non-transport roles, though the separate variants of A for ISR, B for transport and C for training and trials are different from the way those two did it with dedicated compartments within each hull for drones and cargo.
A northern alliance makes sense – personally, I have always had more of an affiliation to the likes of Norway and Denmark that with France/Germany, add in links with the Baltic countries and the UK has a definite North Atlantic/North Sea/Baltic Sea bias. That’s our main security area – especially as it’s becoming more and more likely that we need to keep an eye on American imperialism! Quite happy to include Canada, Iceland, Finland and Sweden in the mix!