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	16 September 2002
In service	2012
Homeport	Berga
Identification	MMSI number: 265823000 Pennant number: K31 Callsign: SMLD
Status	Active
Badge
General characteristics
Class & type	Visby-class corvette
Displacement	660 t (650 long tons)
Length	72.6 m (238 ft 2 in)
Beam	10.4 m (34 ft 1 in)
Draft	2.5 m (8 ft 2 in)
Propulsion	CODAG 2 ×KaMeWa Waterjets 4 × Honeywell TF 50 A gas turbines, total rating 16 MW 2 × MTU Friedrichshafen 16V 2000 N90 diesel engines, total rating 2.6 MW
Speed	45+ knots[citation needed]
Complement	27 officers 16 conscripts
Sensors & 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	1 × Bofors 57 mm gun Mk 3 8 × RBS15 Mk2 AShM 4 × 40cm Torped 45 ASW grenade launchers Mines & depth charges
Aviation facilities	Helipad

Design and description

Main article: Visby-class corvette

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 Nilsson 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]

Construction and career

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 an "intelligence operation".^[4]

After Sweden joined NATO in march 2024, it was announced on January 21 2025 that Visby would be part of Standing NATO Maritime Group 1, contributing to operations under the Baltic Sentry initiative.^[5][6] The announcement comes after a recent series of suspected sabotages against underwater cables and other installations in the Baltic Sea area. This marks the first time in history that a Swedish naval ship is placed directly under NATO command.