Stockholm-class corvette

K12 HMS Malmö & K11 HMS Stockholm
Class overview
Builders	Karlskronavarvet AB
Operators	Swedish Navy
In commission	22 August 1984
Planned	2
Completed	2
Active	HMS Stockholm HMS Malmö
General characteristics
Displacement	380 tonnes
Length	50m
Beam	7,5m
Draft	2.6m
Propulsion	2x MTU diesel engines @ 1920kW 1x Allied Signal Gas turbine @ 4715kW
Speed	30 knots
Complement	21 Officers 14 Conscripts
Sensors and processing systems	Sea Giraffe 50HC air/surf search 9LV 300 missile control SS304 Spira HMS TSM 2642 MF VDS
Electronic warfare & decoys	Rheinmetall Waffe Munition MASS (Multi-Ammunition Softkill) decoy system
Armament	1 × Bofors 57mm MKII 8 × RBS15 Mk2 AShM 4 × 400 mm tubes for Type 43/45 torpedoes 4x ELMA Antisubmarine grenade throwers Mines & Depth charges

Stockholm Class Corvette is a Corvette class in the Swedish Navy. Built in Karlskrona 1984–1985, it is armed with eight RBS15 anti-ship missiles, torpedoes, one 57mm cannon and several machine guns. In 1999/2000 the two units in the class were given several upgrades in the Karlskrona shipyard Kockums. The upgrade included new engines, sensors, stealth technology, and navigation system, the goal being to bring the technology up to the same level as the Visby class.

History

the Stockholm Class Corvette started as a study for a ship with increased endurance, a project called Ytattack-81(Surface combatant-81), which was built on the torpedo boats of Spica and Spica II class, but with an increased displacement from 230t to 350t. The Machinery was to be a CODAG-concept, two diesels and one gas turbine, the class looked to become just another desktop project. But in the early 80ties a series of submarine incidents occurred within Swedish territorial water, the most famous of which is U 137 which ran aground outside Karlskrona 1981. This showed that the Swedish Navy was seriously lacking in its Anti Submarine Capacity, it needed new hulls to devote to anti submarine warfare, and it needed them fast. The decision was to use the Ytattack-81 project and modify it for ASW operations, as designing a completely new ship is a time consuming and costly task. It was given a Towed Array Sonar, ASW Torpedoes and the ELMA Antisubmarine Grenade thrower system. HMS Stockholm was launched 22 August 1984 closely followed by HMS Malmö 23 March 1985, both ships entered service 1 May 1986.

In the middle of the 1990s the ships started to show their age, mainly because of their high mileage and the latest few years explosive development of electronics. The Stockholms class was a successful design and the ships' basic status was good despite a hard life so the Swedish Defence Administration decided to give the ships a second life. HMS Malmö was the first to get modernised in 1999 with HMS Stockholm following suite 2000, the modernisation included new engines, combat control systems, fire control systems, SIGINT and navigational systems. The ships both went through extensive modification of the mast, hull and superstructure to reduce their radar cross-section. A lot of the modification was also made with low maintenance in mind to minimise the need for expensive repairs in the future. The leadstar in the project was to update as much of the systems as possible to the same level as the Visby Corvettes. Both ships are back in operational condition now, attached to the 31st Corvette Division of the 3rd Naval Warfare Flotilla.

Units

Bow number	Ship name	Laid down	Launched	Commissioned	Service	Status
K11	HMS Stockholm	1 August 1982	22 August 1984	1 May 1986	3rd Naval Warfare Flotilla	Modernised 2000, Active
K12	HMS Malmö	14 March 1983	23 March 1985	1 May 1986	3rd Naval Warfare Flotilla	Modernised 1999, Active

References

• Swedish Navy - Stockholmsklass Template:Sv icon
• 3rd Surfacewarfare Flotilla - Korvett typ Stockholm Template:Sv icon
• World Navies Today - Stockholm Class Template:En icon
• Örolgsboken 2003 Template:Sv icon