The Göteborg-class corvette HSwMS Gävle was handed over to the Swedish Navy’s 4th Flotilla on May 4 after a Mid-Life Upgrade. The Swedish Navy has received the first of its two modernized Gävle-class corvettes after the ship spent an entire decade in refit. In parallel, her sister-ship HSwMS Sundsvall is going through the same modifications and will be delivered in 2022. The upgrade includes several new systems that all-in-all strengthens the Swedish Navy’s capability in combat under water, among other areas. Due to the Swedish armed forces’ financial situation at the time, the process was delayed but work resumed later.
“It is a do over and modernization of everything on board: She will have the same hull, but more or less all the systems on the inside are new,” said Johan Edelsvärd, project manager for the mid-life upgrade of Gävle at the Swedish defense procurement agency FMV.
“The flotilla welcomes HSwMS Gävle and her crew back to service. The ship will now be able to contribute to the navy’s ongoing maritime surveillance tasks”, said Jon Wikingsson, Chief of the Swedish Navy’s 4th Flotilla.
The Göteborg class is a class of corvettes in the Swedish Navy, built between 1986 and 1993. The class was originally designed to destroy Soviet submarines and surface vessels, and is armed with eight RBS-15 anti-ship missiles, torpedoes, one 57 mm cannon, and one 40 mm cannon. The Swedish Navy originally planned to acquire six Göteborg-class corvettes, but following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the final two were canceled. Two of the four corvettes built remain in service in 2021. Together with its sister ship Sundsvall, they took part in the United Nations operation off the coast of Lebanon following the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
HSwMS Gävle (K22) is a Swedish Navy Göteborg-class corvette, named after the Swedish city of Gävle. The ship was launched on 23 March 1990 at Karlskrona and entered naval service on 17 September 1990. The goal of modernization is for the vessels to better interact directly and indirectly with the other systems and subsystems of the Swedish armed forces. Another stated direction has been to maintain the ship’s ability for submarine warfare. HSwMS Sundsvall is currently undergoing the same mid-life modification as HSwMS Gävle. After modernization, the two ships will be known as Gävle-class.
