Surface

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.

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YORBA LINDA — Eulogizing his old boss here last week, even Henry A. Kissinger couldn’t help note the irony: Richard Nixon himself–the man who kept a list of “enemies” in the media–probably would have been overwhelmed by all the good press he’d been getting after his death.

The tributes for Nixon were unending, the tones reverent. Imagery of King Lear and Sophocles, of an indomitable warrior and an anguished soul, of reconciliation and forgiveness–all were dominant themes in the media for days.

But now, particularly in the days since Nixon’s burial, the tone of public debate seems to have shifted again, as many critics who had maintained a respectful silence have begun to demand a harsher assessment of a man who never gave up reinventing himself. For them, the plaudits had grown too loud, too quickly.

“Now we’re seeing the backlash the other way,” said Daniel Schorr, a commentator for National Public Radio, who earned a spot on Nixon’s “enemies list” in the early 1970s.

The protests of “enough already” have come from a variety of forums–from radio call-in shows to letters to the editor and television and newspaper commentaries.

Stanley Kutler, a University of Wisconsin historian who wrote a book on Watergate and has waged a years-long legal battle for access to more of Nixon’s records, says he is confident that the critical eye of history will largely erase the current wave of pro-Nixon nostalgia.

“I expected this kind of outpouring. Nixon spent 20 years working for it,” Kutler said. “But in the final analysis, whatever space he gets in the history books will begin with this sentence: ‘Richard Nixon, the first U. S. President to resign because of scandal . . . ‘ “

Said Tom Wicker, a New York Times columnist who wrote a widely cited biography of Nixon: “This outpouring of eulogies and great long lines (at the Yorba Linda viewing) show there was always a lot of support for Mr. Nixon among people who regretted he had to resign. . . . Out of a certain respect for the dead, (critics) haven’t had much to say lately. And only now are they coming around to say, ‘Wait a second, let’s look at reality.’ ”

Perhaps the most personal plea for more balance in the public’s ongoing farewells to Nixon has come from Jack Sirica, the son of the late federal judge who became famous because of Watergate.

A reporter for Newsday in Long Island, N.Y., Sirica said that colleagues had been urging him since Nixon’s death to write a column on his father and Nixon. He resisted for several days, he said, fearing his assessment would sound too harsh.

But Sirica said he changed his mind last week when he passed a school on his way to work and saw children playing around a flag at half-staff.

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He had already read a story saying many children thought Nixon was a pretty good guy, and it was then, seeing that flag, that he decided to write a column. The piece recounted his father’s disillusionment in listening to the infamous Watergate tapes, and it ran the day after Nixon’s funeral under a headline that read: “My Dad Decided Nixon Was a Crook.”

“What concerned me more than anything was that the enormity of the crime seemed to have been getting lost,” Sirica, 41, said in an interview. “Watergate had become, if not a minor footnote, then at least something that could be quickly dispensed with in the historical record.”

But for many among the conservative supporters that Nixon liked to refer to as the Silent Majority, the adulation will continue unabated for the onetime hero of the GOP. They see this as a time of long-overdue recognition for a man who has been unfairly vilified because of a single event in an otherwise distinguished career of public service.

Even after a state funeral attended by dignitaries from around the world Wednesday, mourners continued to turn out by the thousands throughout the week to pay their respects to the freshly sodded grave at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda.

Brian Hayes, 32, took two days off work as a substitute teacher to pay homage to Nixon, and he waited patiently in line for the library to reopen to the public Thursday.

“My interest in politics came about because of him. I consider him the greatest statesman we ever had,” the Long Beach man said. “Despite Watergate, there’s an outpouring of affection for the man, and I think he richly deserves it.”

Cheri Pepka, 24, of Rancho Santa Margarita, cooed softly to her four small children about Nixon’s accomplishments as they waited to sign a guest book at the library, and she told them about a scrapbook she had started to commemorate his life and death.

“One day you’ll understand all of this. You’ll understand what he meant to our country,” she promised the children.

Democrats and Republicans alike stressed similar themes in the days following Nixon’s death on April 22, pointing to the establishment of diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, an arms control agreement with the former Soviet Union, an end to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, and other achievements in foreign affairs.

Indeed, praise came from what once would have seemed unlikely corners.

President Clinton–who came of political age in the 1960s while protesting Nixon’s policies in Vietnam–called for a national “day of mourning” and delivered an eloquent eulogy on Nixon’s legacy. And former Sen. George McGovern, who also attended the funeral, spoke in an interview after the service about “reconciling” with the man who helped derail McGovern’s own failed bid for the Presidency in 1972 through a campaign of “dirty tricks.”

“About Nixon, Leaders Stress Triumphs, Not Downfall,” trumpeted the New York Times on its April 24 front page, a refrain carried by other newspapers around the country.

The favorable media coverage that Kissinger noted at last week’s funeral reflects a combination of dynamics–some that are particular to Nixon himself, others that are inevitable in any attempt to gauge public opinion, media and political observers say.

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In part, the positive reaction reflects the enormous efforts that Nixon made to rehabilitate his image, writing 10 books after his resignation and making frequent appearances on the world stage. As Schorr of NPR said: “He spent 20 years running for ex-President.”

In part, it reflects the overwhelming pomp and circumstance of the first state funeral for a President in more than two decades. And in part, it reflects the feeling that there is something unseemly about criticizing someone who has just died–no matter his scandals.

“It’s almost an America truism that you speak no ill of the dead,” said KABC radio talk-show host Michael Jackson. “I had one caller (on Nixon) who said: ‘My mother always told me if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. So goodby.’ ”

Yet Jackson said callers to his show resisted the general portrayal of Nixon in the media, openly criticizing the former President by about a 4:1 margin.

“They have been tough and blunt and to the point–that he’s been given a free ride,” Jackson said. “I was quite surprised. There were people who identified themselves as Republicans, and even they criticized him.”

Several scholars and media critics said they believe that Nixon’s treatment in the public eye after his death is an inevitable and, in some respects, appropriate phenomenon.

“When somebody dies, you try and look at the good things he did,” said Stephen Hess, a noted student of the media with the Brookings Institution in Washington.

“We were not there to write Richard Nixon’s place in history, but to bury him. What you saw (in media coverage) was in part good manners and in part tradition,” he said. “I don’t really think that’s the time to be looking for balance.”

But Dick O’Neill, a longtime Democratic activist in Orange County who headed the state party, said he was overwhelmed by the glowing coverage that Nixon received.

“I thought, ‘Jesus, this is really something. They’re burying a field marshal,’ ” he said. “It just blew my mind, considering the guy was almost impeached. To say, ‘It’s over with, let’s forget it,’ I think that’s the best way.

“But the people here in Orange County, they went bananas. . . . The young people especially–I don’t know what happened to them. They amazed me how shook up they were, as if some relative had died,” he mused.

The low point for him, O’Neill said, came when an aide working on a Democratic campaign–”a young, progressive Democrat, “ he stressed–volunteered to drive a car for the Nixon funeral last week to help transport dignitaries. “It was beyond me,” he said.

Kutler, the Wisconsin historian, isn’t worried, though. The Nixon biographer and critic says he figures that in three months, when the 20th anniversary of Nixon’s resignation is recounted around the country, the fickle currents of public opinion will find Nixon’s supporters on the defensive once more.

“Then everyone’s going to remember again, they’re going to remember the humiliation that this country went through, the national disgrace,” he said. “And they’ll get it all straight again.”

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Times staff writer Lee Romney contributed to this report.