The New Spearhead Spy Ship Marjata IV; Norway Navy Intelligence

Norway's current spearhead navy intelligence harvesting ship, the F/S Marjata III, is a lovely one and entered service in 1995. If you ask me, the ship is just awesome and pretty much as badass as they could muster it 20 years ago. I love the all over design of it, that has earned it the nickname «Strykejernet» («The Iron»), while the Russian intelligence refer to it as «Masha»:

==> en.wikipedia.org...

FS Marjata is a purpose-built electronic intelligence collection vessel (ELINT). She is the third ship that bears the name Marjata, all of which have been used for military intelligence purposes by the Norwegian Armed Forces. She is owned by the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, but operated by the Norwegian Intelligence Service, and is considered to be one of the most advanced ships of her kind in the world. Her main role is surveillance of the Russian Northern fleet`s activity in the Barents Sea, but is constructed for operations all over the world. She operates in international waters close to the Russian border. Marjata officially serves as a research ship for the Norwegian Intelligence Service.

Norway's next generation spy ship, the Marjata IV, is to enter service next year, in 2016— and it is a giant compared to the MK3. Judging by all the humps on its back, I also bet it's beyond awesomeness when it comes to collection capabilities. When the pic below was taken, it was equipped for action at a navy wharf in the US as far as I remember.


Below is a picture while moored in Northern Norway. Pic is taken a few months before the one above:


The facts below are translated from inside.westcon.no... (texts in Norwegian):
Length: 125 meter
Width: 23 meter
Price: 1.4 mrd. kroner (about £150 million)
Hull: Romania
Equipment: Vard Langstein
Crew: Unknown
Base: Oslo

The ship will mainly patrol and gather intelligence in the North and the Arctic and particularly directed towards Russian activity.

www.vg.no... (in Norwegian, but a few nice pics).
Awesomeness...

Who can look at these kinds of vessels and not get a sinking feeling? The enormous cost to spy on Russia , isolate Russia and eventually… defeat Russia.

I wonder what their equivalent is?

How many viking berserkers can you fit on it ?

Did they build that or buy and convert? It looks an awfully lot like a cruise ship.

a reply to: Utnapisjtim

wow - given the advances in technology ofer the last 20 years - then new vessel has a massive increase in capabilities

was the mk3 down graded in the wake of the collapse of the soviet union ????

Haha, it looks like a bodge job made from James Bond set props.

a reply to: Utnapisjtim

Just a retrofitted cruise ship

a reply to: Utnapisjtim

Only the first picture is the right ship. The marjata doesn't look like a cruise ship and its no where near the size of the second two pictures.

The Russians do indeed hate the ship but the ship looks like a triangle or pizza slice. This design gives it stability in the water. I think the other pictures you have there are a cruise ship.

So what is it doing a MPA can't and what's under the domes?

Seems a bit vulnerable to me, anyone assist with teaching me about this ship?

originally posted by: dragonridr
a reply to: Utnapisjtim

Only the first picture is the right ship. The marjata doesn't look like a cruise ship and its no where near the size of the second two pictures.

The Russians do indeed hate the ship but the ship looks like a triangle or pizza slice. This design gives it stability in the water. I think the other pictures you have there are a cruise ship.

The second one (looking like a ferry) is the new one currently being made fit for work. It has not been converted, it's built like that. In Romania. It's huge compared to the current one (in service since 1995) looking like a slice of pizza.

Quick question. Intelligence ships don't bare weapons like Navy hospital ships, right?

a reply to: JasonNorin

I think the official story behind this ship is that it is a research vessel. Which it is, doing research into the Russian ether and finding the whereabouts of all sorts of military machinery on land, at sea or in the air. So, being a research ship, the Marjata is unarmed, much like AWACS planes, well, you might say the ship itself is a weapon, it's packed with all kinds of hi-tech surveillance equipment.