The frigate was laid down on 22 December 2009 and launched on 21 December 2010 by Odense Steel Shipyard, at Odense. The vessel was commissioned on 7 November 2011.
From 7 May to 13 May 2022, Niels Juel took part in Exercise Mjolner 2022 held in the Arctic region. The vessel conducted its first launches of the SM-2 missiles.[1]
From March 2023 she was deployed for three months to a NATO naval force at very high alert joining task group 441.01.[2]
On 4 April 2024, shipping lanes and airspace in part of the Great Belt strait in Denmark were closed for hours after a missile launcher aboard the ship malfunctioned during a naval exercise.[3]