After almost seven years of legal wrangling, the Norwegian Ministry of Defence and the Spanish shipyard Navantia reached an out-of-court settlement in the case of the frigate "Helge Ingstad", which sank in 2018, at the beginning of June. The settlement provides for Navantia to grant discounts of almost 50 million euros on maintenance and modernisation work on the remaining Fridtjof Nansen-class frigates over the next six years. Originally, Norway had demanded compensation totalling just over one billion euros. This was based on alleged design defects, in particular the hollow propeller shafts, which had allowed water to penetrate through the compartments. Navantia rejected this and cited the Norwegian Safety Authority's investigation, which attributed the sinking of the frigate mainly to the failure to close watertight doors and hatches before the evacuation. A face-saving near acquittal for the shipyard and a consolation for Norway!

Meanwhile, various Norwegian shipyards are preparing for possible cooperation after the selection in the Norwegian frigate project through cooperation agreements with the competition participants (TKMS, Naval Group). As was announced at the end of August, Norway has opted for the British design of the "Glasgow" (Type 26 City-class) air defence frigate in the ASW version and now wants to focus on a close British-Norwegian Northern Alliance in terms of compatible and complementary naval warfare assets.