Rear Admiral Nils Wang

Even though commissioning a new commander of Danish Task Group at the beginning of our largest national exercise can hardly be characterized as ideally timed, this change of command takes place in a fine setting. As most of you know, it is not the first time that commodore Palle Cortes takes over command of Danish Task Group and I remember that the setting last time was an empty house at Naval Base Korsør where literally speaking there was neither pencil nor paper. So I am very happy, Palle, that this time it can be done in style.

I can’t help thinking about how much has happened in the Navy since Danish Task Group in the year 2000 participated in its first exercise in a large, cold tent down at Ramstein, under the NATO paper exercise called CONSTANT HARMONY. Even though it was only a paper exercise, many of our foreign partners already then realized that the Danish Navy had established a new concept of command. This concept has since been developed considerably, and with great satisfaction I note that the Danish Task Group staff today is well-reputed abroad. Such a reputation doesn’t come by itself, but can only be created through hard work and by showing others that we professionally are at the top of the super league.

Acting commander Danish Task Group, Commander s.g. Gustav Lang, has both as chief of staff and as acting commander been a major contributor to the positive “brand” Danish Task Group and here in the presence of good witnesses I would like to thank you many times, Gustav, for your tireless effort for Danish Task Group in recent years and not least for the enormous planning effort you and your staff has done in connection with this years DANEX exercise.

I have a strong feeling that the basis for taking Danish Task Group one step further is almost in place. Here I primarily think about equipment in the form of new, large and very capable command platforms without disparaging the effort made by the command ship THETIS in recent years. But I also think about the political understanding for and will to use naval units in international operations. The process that has taken place in connection with the decision to deploy a Danish naval contingent to Lebanon has been noteworthy in several ways. First, the political will to deploy the contingent even before a decision was made in the Danish Parliament, was present at a very early stage – in anticipation of a grant, that is. And that is exactly possible with ships where you don’t need clearance from other nations to sail the open sea. Second – and with respect to Danish Task Group even more interesting – that for the first time it’s been decided to contribute with up to three ships at the same time. I explicitly say “up to three ships” because whether it will be one, two or all three will not be known until some time next week. But my point here is, that with the political naturalness that here has stated “up to three units” the deployment of a regular Danish Task Group may not be as far away as is has been earlier. I also note that there still is an ongoing discussion about Danish participation in Task Force 150 in parallel with the operation in Lebanon and it is still not out of the question in this connection to deploy the entire Danish Task Group with command platform if Denmark is requested to take the lead in this operation for six months.

And then we must not forget that Danish Task Group has been involved in international opetations with individuals and actually is as I speak. In this respect I would especially like to acknowledge the effort made by Danish Task Group personnel during the evacuation of several thousand Danish citizens from Lebanon. BZ.

Palle, I am sure that you are the right person to bring Danish Task Group the step forward that I have talked about here. A few people may doubt whether you can maintain the enthusiasm when returning to a job you have had earlier. I do not have this doubt, because I know you and I know that your heart is beating for exactly this vital part of the activities of the Danish Navy.

I look forward to work with you again and it is my sincere wish that we together, from our different positions, will see Danish Task Group in the role for which the staff was originally created, namely as a Task Group staff in an international operation.