 During the design period several foreign designs were also evaluated by the Norwegian military, but by 11 October 1930 the Norwegian Ministry of Defence ordered the production of the M.F.11, which at that time was referred to as a "self-defence scout plane".At the outset the Norwegian naval pilots wanted a monoplane design for their new naval aircraft, but due to the RNoNAS demanding the new plane to have a maximum wingspan of 15.4 m, to allow it to fit into the existing hangars, a biplane structure became necessary.