Norway has announced that it intends to build up to 28 ships, of common design but of different displacements, in order to cover a range of operational needs and, at the same time, ensure economies of scale in the purchase, use and support of the ships. The program will be implemented in Norway, by Norwegian shipyards and in cooperation with the domestic defense industry. The ships will be based on the multi-role Vanguard design. The Vanguard concept envisages a mother ship which, with the appropriate mission equipment, can undertake a multitude of missions. The Vanguard design is modular, meaning that it can accept many and different mission combinations so as to fulfill operations of surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, mine warfare, area denial, search and rescue, port and offshore installation protection, hydrography, general transport, patrol, etc. The ships incorporate an extensive hangar to accommodate and support a naval cooperation helicopter, UAVs and unmanned sea and underwater vehicles. Switching a ship from one configuration to another, to perform different roles, does not require much time. The Vanguard ships are based on commercial ship designs, in order to reduce costs. However, emphasis has been placed on the development of mission combinations, resulting in an economical multi-role design. The Vanguard concept was developed following a collaboration between the Norwegian companies Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace, Salt Ship Design and Kongsberg Maritime.
