The Swedish Navy, the largest surface combatant of which is currently the Visby class corvette, is gearing up to place an order for four frigates. These would be the Swedish Navy’s largest warships since it gave up its last destroyers back in the early 1980s. The planned frigates reflect Sweden’s expanding naval ambitions since joining NATO and are also expected to stress anti-air warfare capabilities, something that’s of growing interest to the Swedish Navy.
Swedish Minister of Defense Pål Jonson said today that a final decision on the four-frigate buy is likely early next year. “We’re looking at what frigates there are that are available, that would also suit our quite ambitious timeline,” Jonson said. He added that the plan was to have two frigates in service “ideally by 2030” and another two by 2035.
The Defense Materiel Administration (FMV), Sweden’s defense procurement organization, has completed a market survey on available frigates, but has yet to make a final decision. Bearing in mind the ambitious timeline, an off-the-shelf design will be selected. The decision to acquire a warship significantly larger than the stealthy Visby class was made last year, at which point a foreign design became the only realistic option. The new vessels will be named the Luleå class.
Jonson was speaking today after a meeting in Stockholm with his French counterpart, Catherine Vautrin, who offered to supply Sweden with a first fully equipped frigate in 2030. This would be a version of the Naval Group’s new Frégate de Défense et d’Intervention (FDI), or defense and intervention frigate, an unorthodox design with an inverted bow, which you can read more about here.
Other items discussed by Jonson and Vautrin included French interest in the Saab GlobalEye airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, as well as aid to Ukraine.
The FDI was first formally offered to Sweden last month, and, if selected, it would be built in partnership with the Swedish defense industry, in particular, Saab.
In terms of the role of the new Swedish frigate, Jonson confirmed today that they will have a significant anti-air warfare function, reflecting the nation’s plan to join NATO’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) program. The alliance’s investment in this network has been stepped up in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with NATO deploying additional IAMD capabilities to NATO’s eastern flank.
The Swedish Navy is already making efforts to expand its anti-air warfare capabilities with an update to its five Visby class corvettes, which adds the Sea Ceptor, also known as the Common Anti-air Modular Missile (CAMM) — a surface-to-air missile that can engage a wide variety of threats.
The anti-air warfare focus would appear to put the FDI in a strong position for the Swedish requirement. As we have described in the past, the primary anti-air weapon of the French warship is the Aster surface-to-air missile, 16 of which are carried in a pair of eight-cell launchers — later vessels will be able to carry 32 by doubling the number of launchers.
The combat-proven Aster is available in two main versions. The smaller Aster 15 has a range of around 18 miles, while the larger Aster 30 is able to engage targets at more than 75 miles. Recent improvements to the Aster 30 include enhancing its capabilities against anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs), a relatively new type of threat.
The FDI uses a Thales Sea Fire radar to support its air defense mission out to a significant range.
Comparing the Visby class and the FDI, the Swedish design has a displacement of 705 tons and a length of 238 feet 6 inches, while the French warship has a displacement of 4,390 tons and is 400 feet 3 inches long.
In the past, another option for the future Luleå class was expected to be a development of the British Type 31 frigate design, proposed by a partnership of Saab and Babcock. According to an agreement between the two companies, Saab would develop the basic design for the frigate, while Babcock would provide support with engineering, structural design, and auxiliary systems. However, the current status of this collaboration is unclear.
Another likely contender for the Swedish requirement is Spain’s Navantia. This manufacturer offers a variety of frigates that cover a range from just over 2,200 tons displacement to ships above 6,000 tons. Designs include the Spanish Navy’s recently launched F110 class frigate, also known as the Bonifaz class. As you can read about here, this warship is notable for its combination of high-end anti-submarine warfare functions paired with anti-air warfare abilities and its distinctive tall mast, mounting elements of a sophisticated radar system.
The last time that the Swedish Navy operated a surface combatant approaching this kind of size was back in the early 1980s. The Östergötland was the Swedish Navy’s last class of destroyers, originally built in the late 1950s. These had a fully loaded displacement of 2,600 tons and were 367 feet 5 inches long, somewhat smaller than the preceding Halland class, which had a fully loaded displacement of 3,291 tons and a length of 398 feet 11 inches. The last examples of these two classes of destroyers were decommissioned in 1982.
As part of the French drive to export the FDI frigate to Sweden, the first-of-class Amiral Ronarc’h will visit the Swedish port of Gothenburg early next year. France has already secured sales of the warship to Greece, which is buying four, on top of the five planned for the French Navy.
For the Swedish Navy, the primary area of operation has been the Baltic theater, an area of resurgent strategic relevance, as the host to regular and sometimes hostile Russian military activity, maritime, airborne, and also increasingly in the ‘gray zone’ or hybrid warfare.
A new frigate with enhanced anti-air warfare capabilities will be better able to protect itself, other vessels, and even shore areas or islands, against threats from the air. The overwhelming numbers of crewed aircraft, drones, and missiles that Russia could potentially put up in a conflict involving Sweden have been a significant concern even before the country joined NATO.
Already, much of the Swedish Air Force’s mode of operation is based on being best prepared to leverage smaller numbers to deal with a potential large-scale Russian aerial attack. As a result, the Swedish Air Force has long sought to develop innovative technologies and tactics that would allow it, as a much smaller air arm, to be able to put up significant resistance.
The four new frigates should further that ambition, but would also allow operations far outside the Baltic, including into the wider North Atlantic region, reflecting Sweden’s developing military ambitions as it becomes a more established NATO member.
Once it gets its new frigates, the Swedish Armed Forces will be better prepared to face any kind of contingency in the Baltic region or elsewhere, and it will be interesting to see whether they opt for the FDI frigate or a rival design.
Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com