The Coast Guard first announced plans for the class in September 2016, to increase their capability to patrol Norway's expansive coastal waters, and to replace the ageing Nordkapp-class vessels.

[1] Considerably larger than their predecessors, the hulls of these ships were constructed at the Vard Tulcea shipyard in Romania.

[3][4] The total cost for the 3 ships in the class is expected to be 7.2 billion kroner ($645 million), one of the largest maritime defense expenditures ever made by Norway.

[5] The design of the ships was contracted to LMG Marin, a Norwegian engineering services company.

[6] The hull of the Jan-Mayen-class is designed to be ice-strengthened, to enable independent navigation of icy seas.