Feature 2 | NORDIC NAVIES Nordic navies expand their horizons
Nordic navies are continuing to change their roles from local, or regional, defence to participation in international peacekeeping or humanitarian relief missions. Yet, in some ways, they are facing the ‘calm before the storm,’ or at least a squall, with a slow build-up towards some major programmes.
meet a national requirement for four boats, although it is possible that Norway may also join the project to replace its Ula class and there remain hopes of participation by Singapore and possibly Australia. Construction is expected to begin by 2013 with the first joining the fleet in 2018 replacing three Gotland (A19) and two Södermanland (A17) which were commissioned up to 22 years ago but upgraded with Stirling Mk III air independent propulsion (AIP) systems. Te boat will be about 63m long, with a
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beam of 6.4m, a submerged displacement of 1900tonnes and a crew of up to 26. Te A26 will feature a diesel-electric propulsion system including the yard’s proven Stirling AIP system for prolonged submerged operations. They will feature extremely modular construction to facilitate modifications and upgrades as well as improving its effective operational life including a flexible payload capability based upon four torpedo tubes capable of launching torpedoes, mines and, probably, submarine-to-surface missiles with land-attack capability, all controlled through a Saab Sesub 960C combat management system.
URF life extension In October 2011 the Swedish Navy’s submarine rescue vehicle Ubåtsräddningsfarkost (URF) arrived at James Fisher Defence’s engineering facility in Glasgow following a contract worth some £11 million (US$17.3 million) awarded in May by the Defence Materiel Administration (Försvarets Materielverk or FMV). Under the contract the company will upgrade the URF and extend its life for another 12 years to 2024.
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The last of the Finnish Navy’s new mine countermeasures vessels (the Kantanpää class) was named in November.
At long last the ‘stealthy’ Visby class
corvettes are becoming fully operational, although the process will not be complete until some time next year when the last ship is certified. Te Royal Swedish Navy is drafting requirements for two new corvettes to replace the two Göteborgs. Te new ships, with a displacement of some 2200tonnes, will be capable of operations outside the Baltic with the first scheduled to be commissioned in 2023. With stories of unidentified submarines
operating in Swedish waters – a report about one incursion off Gothenburg in September led to several corvettes seeking it – mean that anti-submarine operations remain an important feature of the corvettes. By happy coincidence, less than a fortnight later, the FMV placed a SEK400 million (US$59.1 million) contract with Saab Security and Defence Solutions and Dynamics for Hydra 135/137sonar systems.
Tese are multi-sensor systems including
a hull-mounted mine avoidance sonar augmented by a passive towed-array sonar and a dual-frequency active variable-depth sonar. The sensor can be used both for anti-submarine and mine countermeasures operations and the systems will be installed in both Visby and Göteborg class corvettes with the contract including upgrades to their 9LV Mk 3 combat systems and will be completed in 2014. Te Support Ship project is likely to
make some progress this year having started as an FMV feasibility study in 2007-2008 for a Combat Support Ship with amphibious operations capability. Financial considerations delayed the project until August 2010 when the Swedish Cabinet approved the start of a definition phase for a vessel similar to its predecessor but lacking the amphibious warfare capability. A 15-month project
Warship Technology January 2012
weden’s A26 submarine programme continues, with detailed design work by the Kockums yard to
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