April 17, 2019, by navaltoday

Polish shipbuilder Nauta Shiprepair Yard has launched the hull of the Swedish Navy’s new signals intelligence (SIGINT) ship.

In the same ceremony on April 17, Swedish Rear Admiral Jens Nykvist announced that the ship will be given the name HSwMS Artemis.

Outfitting and equipment installation will take place in Nauta Shiprepair Yard, after which the vessel will undergo harbor and sea trials.

The ship will then sail to Saab’s shipyard in Karlskrona to complete outfitting of special systems.

The first steel cutting took place in March 2018 followed by the keel-laying three months later.

According to Saab, the ship will be 74 meters long, displace 2,200 tonnes and will replace HSwMS Orion which was launched in 1984.

“Special purpose ships are primarily used for the interception and analysis of radio-transmitted signals and need to be highly reliable and available. Therefore you need highly skilled shipbuilders to build this kind of ship. We are very pleased with the progress of the construction process, and it was a pleasure to attend the keel laying ceremony at the Naval Shipyard, our partner in this project,” explained Gunnar Wieslander, senior vice president and head of Saab Business Area Kockums, on an earlier occasion.