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HSwMS Visby (K31)

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HSwMS Visby in 2013
HSwMS Visby in 2013
History
NameVisby
NamesakeVisby
Ordered1995
BuilderKockums
Laid down17 February 1995
Launched8 June 2000
Commissioned16 September 2002
In service2012
HomeportBerga
Identification
StatusActive
Badge
General characteristics
Class and typeVisby-class corvette
Displacement660 t (650 long tons)
Length72.6 m (238 ft 2 in)
Beam10.4 m (34 ft 1 in)
Draft2.5 m (8 ft 2 in)
Propulsion
Speed45+ knots[citation needed]
Complement
  • 27 officers
  • 16 conscripts
Sensors and
processing systems
  • Ericsson Sea Giraffe ABM 3D surveillance radar
  • Ceros 200 Fire control radar system
  • Condor CS-3701 Tactical Radar Surveillance System
  • Hull-mounted sonar
  • Towed array sonar system
  • Variable depth sonar
Electronic warfare
& decoys		Rheinmetall Waffe Munition MASS (Multi-Ammunition Softkill) decoy system
Armament
Aviation facilitiesHelipad

HSwMS Visby (K31) is the lead ship of the Visby-class corvettes. It was created as a stealth ship, and underwent a decade long testing phase before it entered service with the Swedish Navy.

Design and description

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Main article: Visby-class corvette

HSwMS Visby is the lead ship of the Visby-class corvettes.[1] It was built by Kockums at the Karlskrona naval base, and was the first of four vessels of the class which are designed for coastal warfare.[2]

The hull of the vessel is made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic, a stealth technology, in order to make the vessel difficult to detect by other forces. A minimum of external equipment is stored outside of the vessel, with equipment such as liferafts being stored inside the hull.[3] This hull also reduces the weight of the vessel by around half. It was intended to be radar silent until it moves within 30 kilometres (19 mi) of an enemy vessel, resulting in designer John Nilsson saying of it, "Naval officers fall in love with [this] ship. It's not classically beautiful. In fact it looks like a lunchbox. But it has better maneuverability and can achieve that level of stealth."[2]

Construction and career

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Visby completed sea trials in 2004.[2] The ship underwent a further eight years of tests by the Swedish Defence Procurement Agency, before being delivered to the Navy in late 2012. These tests included the firing of the RBS15 Mk2 AShM, which took place in July 2012.[1] In October 2014, Visby was amongst the Swedish vessels patrolling in an exercise for finding the source of "foreign underwater activity" which was rumoured to be a Russian submarine, identified by distress call. This rumour was denied by the Swedish authorities, who described it as an "intelligence operation".[4]

After Sweden joined NATO in march 2024, it was announced on January 21 2025 that Visby would be part of Standing NATO Maritime Group 1, contributing to operations under the Baltic Sentry initiative.[5][6] The announcement comes after a recent series of suspected sabotages against underwater cables and other installations in the Baltic Sea area. This marks the first time in history that a Swedish naval ship is placed directly under NATO command.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Swedish Navy's HMS Visby test fires first guided missile". Naval-Technology.com. July 2, 2012. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
  2. ^ a b c Summers, Chris (June 10, 2004). "Stealth ships steam ahead". BBC News. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
  3. ^ ""Ryssland intresserat av vad vi övar"". SvD Nyhetter (in Swedish). October 18, 2014. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
  4. ^ "Russia denies submarine incident off Sweden". BBC News. October 19, 2014. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
  5. ^ Willett, Dr Lee (2025-01-21). "NATO Builds Baltic Sentry Network Across Region". Naval News. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  6. ^ "NATO's Baltic Sentry steps up patrols in the Baltic Sea to safeguard Critical Undersea Infrastructure". mc.nato.int. Archived from the original on 2025-01-21. Retrieved 2025-01-22.
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