HSwMS Helsingborg (K32)

HSwMS Helsingborg off Gotska Sandön on 30 June 2008
History
Name	Helsingborg
Namesake	Helsingborg
Ordered	1990
Builder	Kockums
Launched	27 June 2003
Commissioned	16 December 2009
Homeport	Berga
Identification	MMSI number: 265897000 Pennant number: K32 Callsign: SMLG
Status	Active
Badge
General characteristics
Class and 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	35+ knots
Complement	27 officers 16 conscripts
Sensors and 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

HSwMS Helsingborg (K32) is a Swedish Visby-class corvette. She was ordered by the Swedish Government in 1995 and is the second ship of the class built by Kockums. She has been in active service with the 31st Corvette Squadron, 3rd Naval Warfare Flotilla since 19 December 2009. It is a stealth missile corvette.

Design and description

Main article: Visby-class corvette

HSwMS Helsingborg is the second 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 Nillson 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

Kockums delivered her to FMV on 24 April 2006, when she started her extensive operational sea trials, during which she has returned to the yard several times. On 12 August 2006 she left Sweden for the Mediterranean. She returned to Karlskrona 11 September the same year.

References

1. "Swedish Navy's HMS Visby test fires first guided missile". Naval-Technology.com. July 2, 2012. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
2. Summers, Chris (June 10, 2004). "Stealth ships steam ahead". BBC News. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
3. ""Ryssland intresserat av vad vi övar"". SvD Nyhetter (in Swedish). October 18, 2014. Retrieved October 19, 2014.

External links

• BBC article
• FMV - Official homepage
• Kockums - Official homepage
• Swedish navy page (in Swedish)