Furthermore, the flex deck can support a containerized hospital or simply transport a number of ISO standard containers or some 55 vehicles, including up to seven main battle tanks.

The ships are built to the naval standards of Det Norske Veritas (DNV GL), an international certification body and classification society, heavily utilizing STANAG.

The design is built with the aim of a large margin for growth over life-cycle, to a relatively low cost of ownership, with open architecture for ease of upgrades, with a high degree of automation allowing smaller crews, and utilizing StanFlex modules that can be shared across several ship classes in service with the Royal Danish Navy.

The hulls were built in highly competitive commercial shipyards using the latest development in the industries shipbuilding technology and cost-effective production procedures and processes.

[7] The ships were named after two brothers, Esbern Snare and archbishop Absalon, who led the naval campaigns in the 12th century against the Wends, a group of pagan Slavs in northern Germany.