HSwMS Visby (K31)

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.

HSwMS Visby in 2013
History
Name: Visby
Namesake: Visby
Ordered: 1995
Builder: Kockums
Laid down: 17 February 1995
Launched: 8 June 2000
Commissioned: 2002
In service: 2012
Identification: MMSI number: 265823000
Status: In service
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type: Visby Class
Displacement: 650t
Length: 72.6m
Beam: 10.4m
Draft: 2.5m
Propulsion:
Speed: 35+ knots
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 facilities: Helicopter Pad

Design and description

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 Nillson 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]

Service

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 a "intelligence operation".[4]

References
  1. "Swedish Navy's HMS Visby test fires first guided missile". Naval-Technology.com. July 2, 2012. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
  2. 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.
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