A test of a new hatch system for the anti-ship missiles fielded by the Swedish Navy’s Visby-class corvettes has been declared a success.
As per a recent press statement from the FMV, the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration, a prototype of the new system, developed by Saab Dynamics and Svekon, was built at its Test and Evaluation Centre in Vidsel.
Naval Staff Technical System Manager Ida Sjöblom said: “The test was successful and the project received the necessary feedback as expected.”
The Swedish Navy has five Visby-class corvettes in service; they are 72 metres long and capable of 35 knots. They each carry eight Robot 15 projectiles, a long-range fire-and-forget surface-to-surface and air-to-surface land attack and anti-ship missile developed by the Swedish company Saab Bofors Dynamics.
They are sea-skimming, high-subsonic missiles which carry a 200kg high explosive warhead. The latest version being developed, the RBS 15 Mk. IV Gungnir, will have a range of more than 190 miles, they can be fired from land, sea or air.
The hatch system for the missiles being fitted to the Visby-class corvettes is needed to maintain the ship’s stealth capabilities; they will be fitted piecemeal stretching into 2030.
In June it was announced Saab will also be installing MBDA’s Sea Ceptor air defence system on the corvettes. The boats are scheduled to be fitted with the standard version of the Common Anti-Air Modular Missile; the 3.2-metre projectiles fly at about Mach 3 and have a range of just over 15 miles.
Saab’s Kockums division has been contracted to carry out the work in a contract valued at roughly SEK 1.6 billion (a little more than £120 million).
The Sea Ceptor systems will be fitted as part of the vessels’ mid-life upgrade at Saab’s Karlskrona facility from 2026 onwards; the new hatches for the Robot 15 missiles may be installed at the same time.
- You can read more details on the FMV website