Iver Huitfeldt is a class of frigates in service with the Royal Danish Navy.

At 138.7 m (455 ft) in length, a beam of 19.75 m (64.8 ft), a draft of 5.3 m (17 ft) and with a displacement of 6,645 tonnes (full load) the three ships of the class are quite large frigates and considering the armament onboard, these danish ships could easily have been classified as air defence destroyers.

The hull of the Iver Huitfeldt class is of the same design as the hull of the Absalon class support ship. By reusing the same hull design, the total cost of the three frigates has been considerably reduced.

The ships were constructed in blocks in the baltic states of Estonia and Lithuania and were assembled in Denmark at the Odense Steel Shipyard.

Propulsion

With a CODAD propulsion system, Iver Huitfeldt class have two shafts and is powered by four MTU 8000 20V M70 diesel engines, each of them providing a power of 8,2 MW.

Armament

Being a primary air defence system frigate, Iver Huitfeldt class has four Mk 41 VLS and two Mk 56 VLS installed onboard. The Mk 41 VLS can launch both RIM-162 ESSM and SM-2 IIIA missiles.

Each of the three danish frigates are armed with 32 SM-2 IIIA and 24 RIM-162 ESSM missiles with the posibility to raise the number of ESSM up to 48. The ships also have the potential to use the Tomahawk cruise missiles.

As anti-ship missiles, the Royal Danish Navy's vessels have in their inventory 8 to 16 Harpoon Block II missiles.

The weapon inventory is completed by one 35 mm Rheinmetall Oerlikon Millennium Gun CIWS, two 76 mm OTO Melara naval guns and two dual MU90 Impact ASW torpedo launchers.

Radars

Iver Huitfeldt frigates use the long range SMART-L passive electronically scanned array surveillance radar.

This long range L-band radar is supplemented by the APAR active electronically scanned array radar, which is responsible for horizon searching, target tracking and missile guidance.

Having helicopter deck and hangar, each Iver Huitfeldt class frigate operates onboard a Sikorski MH-60R Seahawk maritime helicopter.