HSwMS Helsingborg (K32)

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.

Helsingborg
HSwMS Helsingborg off Gotska Sandön on 30 June 2008
History
NameHelsingborg
NamesakeHelsingborg
Ordered1990
BuilderKockums
Launched27 June 2003
Commissioned16 December 2009
HomeportBerga
Identification
StatusActive
Badge
General characteristics
Class and typeVisby-class corvette
Displacement660 t (650 long tons)
Length72.6 m (238 ft 2 in)
Beam10.4 m (34 ft 1 in)
Draft2.5 m (8 ft 2 in)
Propulsion
Speed35+ 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
Aviation facilitiesHelipad

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.
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