The building of the first Finnish Navy multi-purpose corvette included in the Squadron 2020 project has advanced to the keel laying phase. A traditional keel laying ceremony was celebrated at Rauma shipyard on Thursday 11 April 2024. The laying of the keel represents an important milestone in the construction of the Squadron 2020 multi-purpose corvettes. The first block is now laid on the shipyard’s building bucks. This achieved, the vessel starts to be constructed around this keel block as other blocks get connected to one another. The building of this multi-purpose corvette has advanced at a good pace according to plans since the construction work kicked off in late October 2023. Keel laying is a traditional ceremony celebrating the advancement of ship building work. In keeping with traditions, the event involves the placing of so-called keel coins under the keel.
Rauma Marine Constructions (RMC) and its subsidiary RMC Defence Oy are building four Pohjanmaa-class multi-purpose corvettes for the Navy designed for the range of circumstances of the Baltic Sea. Together with the existing four Hamina-class missile boats, the four new surface combatants will form the backbone of the Finnish Navy from the mid-2020s onwards. They will replace seven older vessels that have been or are due to be decommissioned; the minelayer Pohjanmaa, Hämeenmaa-class minelayers and Rauma-class missile boats. Through all the four seasons, the corvettes will be capable of laying sea mines, conducting anti-submarine operations, securing sea lines of communication and achieving sustained presence at sea. The Defence Forces Logistics Command is the commissioning unit in the Finnish Defence Forces. In its entirety, the Squadron 2020 project will be completed by 2029.
The overall length of the Pohjanmaa-class corvettes will be 117 metres (383 ft 10 in) and the beam 16 metres (52 ft 6 in). The maximum draught of the vessels will be 5 metres (16 ft 5 in) which corresponds to a displacement of about 4,300 tonnes (4,200 long tons). With these main dimensions, the new multi-role corvettes will be the largest Finnish surface combatants since the 1930s coastal defence ships Ilmarinen and Väinämöinen. Each ship will have a complement of about 70 officers and crew. Designed for year-round service in the seasonally freezing Baltic Sea, Pohjanmaa-class corvettes will feature an ice-strengthened hull and ability to operate independently in ice. The Pohjanmaa class will feature a combined diesel-electric and gas (CODLAG) propulsion system with a total output of 28 megawatts (38,000 hp).
Pohjanmaa-class corvettes will be armed with a single dual-purpose naval gun, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles, anti-submarine torpedoes, naval mines, close-in weapon systems, and a decoy system. The forward-mounted Bofors 57 mm Mk3 dual-purpose main gun will be recycled from the Hamina-class missile boats. The primary surface-to-surface armament of the Pohjanmaa class is the Gabriel 5 subsonic anti-ship missile. In addition, each Pohjanmaa-class corvette will be fitted with two Saab Trackfire remote controlled weapon stations for close-in self-defence and four Rheinmetall Multi Ammunition Softkill System (MASS) decoy launchers. Against aerial targets, Pohjanmaa-class corvettes will be armed with Raytheon RIM-162 Evolved Seasparrow Missile (ESSM) Block 2 surface-to-air missiles.
