The ''Luleå'' class is a Swedish

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...

class under development. In total four ships are planned to be built by

Saab Kockums Saab Kockums AB is a shipyard headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, owned by the Swedish defence company Saab AB. Saab Kockums AB is further operational in Muskö, Docksta, and Karlskrona. While having a history of civil vessel construction, Kocku ...

. The first two ships are to be commissioned by 2030 and two more by 2035. In June 2023 it was announced that the ships would receive names after Swedish coastal cities: The four ships will be named HSwMS ''Luleå'', HSwMS ''Norrköping'', HSwMS ''Trelleborg'', and HSwMS ''Halmstad''.

Development

In January 2021 Saab Kockums was awarded a contract for the product definition phase of the ''Visby'' gen 2 corvettes by the

Swedish Defence Materiel Administration The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (, FMV) is a Swedish government agency that reports to the Ministry of Defence. The agency is responsible for the supply of materiel to the Swedish defence organisation. It is located in Stockholm. D ...

(FMV). These ships were intended to be an evolved version of the s currently in service with the

Swedish Navy The Swedish Navy () is the maritime service branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the Fleet (), formally sometimes referred to as the Royal Navy () – as well as marine units, the Amph ...

. However, a rapidly changing geopolitical situation in large part due to the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

and Sweden's subsequent application to join

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

led to the cancellation of the ''Visby'' gen 2 in favour of a clean sheet design, the ''Luleå'' class. As the Swedish Navy wants the ''Luleå'' class built and commissioned quickly it has been reported that the hulls will be built abroad while outfitting of the ships will be handled by

in Sweden. A similar arrangement was also used for the construction of .

Design

The ''Luleå'' class will be the largest ships in service with the Swedish Navy, over long. Increased range and endurance will be important factors. The ships will primarily be armed with

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...

s. In May 2024 Saab signed a contract with British shipbuilder Babcock for the design of the future ship class.

References

{{Reflist Corvette classes