The Royal Danish Navy decommissioned the last of its three Agdlek-class cutters during a November 30 ceremony held in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital and largest city.
Greenland is where the cutter HDMS Tulugaq spent the majority of its 40-year service life protecting and patrolling Greenlandic territorial waters as part of the Royal Danish Navy’s Joint Arctic Command.
The ship’s crew lowered the Dannebrog pennant one last time during a ceremony led by Danish Joint Arctic Command deputy commander Captain Anders Friis.
Tulugaq will now be stripped of all military equipment and auctioned for sale by the end of December 2017. The ship will be sold without its mast which will serve museum purposes.
The ice-strengthened Agdlek-class cutters were commissioned into the Danish Navy between 1973 and 1974. The cutters are succeeded by the much larger Knud Rasmussen-class patrol vessels. Knud Rasmussen OPVs displace around 1,700 tons while the Agdlek-class cutters displace 330 tons.
Tulugaq will be replaced by the future HDMS Lauge Koch which is expected to be commissioned into the navy by the end of the year.