The Swedish Navy ( sv, Svenska marinen) is the naval branch of the

Swedish Armed Forces The Swedish Armed Forces ( sv, Försvarsmakten, "the Defense Force") is the government agency that forms the armed forces of Sweden, tasked with the defense of the country as well as with promoting Sweden's wider interests, supporting internat ...

. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the

Fleet Fleet may refer to: Vehicles *Fishing fleet *Naval fleet * Fleet vehicles, a pool of motor vehicles * Fleet Aircraft, the aircraft manufacturing company Places Canada * Fleet, Alberta, Canada, a hamlet England *The Fleet Lagoon, at Chesil Beac ...

() – as well as marine units, the Amphibious Corps (). In

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

, vessels of the Swedish Navy are given the

prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy''. Particu ...

"HMS", short for (His/Her Majesty's Ship). In English, this is sometimes changed to "HSwMS" ("His Swedish Majesty's Ship") to differentiate Swedish vessels from those of the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

. Founded under King Gustav I in 1522, the Swedish navy is one of the oldest continuously serving navies in the world, celebrating its 500th anniversary in 2022.

History

Early Swedish kings ( 9th–14th centuries) organised a Swedish Navy along the coastline through . This involved combined rowing and sailing ships (without artillery). This system became obsolete with the development of society and changes in military technology. No later than in the 14th century, the duty to serve in was replaced by a tax. In 1427, when Sweden was still part of the Kalmar Union (with Denmark and Norway), Swedish warships did however participate in the naval battle of Öresund against the Hanseatic League. It is unclear how this force was organised and exactly on what basis. On 7 June 1522, one year after the separation of Sweden from the Kalmar Union,

Gustav Vasa Gustav I, born Gustav Eriksson of the Vasa noble family and later known as Gustav Vasa (12 May 1496 – 29 September 1560), was King of Sweden from 1523 until his death in 1560, previously self-recognised Protector of the Realm ('' Riksför ...

purchased a number of ships from the Hanseatic town of

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

. Official Swedish histories since the 19th century have often recorded this day as the birth of the current Swedish Navy. The museum ship in Stockholm was a 17th-century ship of the Royal Swedish Navy (). The Amphibious Corps dates back to 1 January 1902, when a separate "

Coastal Artillery Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form o ...

" () was established, and came into use as the name of the service as a whole. The last decade of the 20th century saw the abandonment of the coastal fortifications and the force became a more regular marine corps, renamed Amphibious Corps () in 2000. For most of the twentieth century the Swedish Navy focused on the threat of a full-scale invasion of Sweden via the Baltic and on protecting commercial shipping. Sweden's location on the Scandinavian peninsula makes it highly dependent of maritime trade: 90% imports and exports enter or leave Sweden through the Baltic. In 1972 the government decreed that non-military measures should be used to protect merchant shipping. The resolution led to the de-commissioning of all the navy's destroyers and frigates, though the non-military measures the government intended to use to protect shipping have never been specified. The navy first participated in a UN-led peacekeeping mission in October 2006 when the corvette began performing coastal surveillance duties for the United Nations Mission in Lebanon. HSwMS ''Gävle'' was relieved by , which returned to Sweden in September 2007. , , and took part in the EU-led EUNAVFOR operation (2008- ) off the coast of the

Horn of Africa The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation'', (The Guilford Press; 2004), ...

. In 2010, was the EUNAVFOR flagship, housing the fleet headquarters led by RAdm (LH) Jan Thörnqvist.

Organization

Until recently, the Navy was led by the Chief of the Navy, who was typically a vice admiral. This office has been eliminated, and the highest officer of the Navy is now the Chief of Navy, Rear Admiral Ewa Skoog Haslum, who is the senior representative of the Swedish Navy's combat forces. The Marine units use the same system of rank as the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

Naval units

1st Submarine Flotilla The 1st Submarine Flotilla ( sv, Första ubåtsflottiljen, 1. ubflj) is a unit of the Swedish Fleet which has operated in various forms since 1904. Its unit staff is located at Karlskrona naval base, Blekinge in Karlskrona Garrison. History The ...

(1. ubflj) located at Karlskrona * 3rd Naval Warfare Flotilla (3. sjöstridsflj) located at Karlskrona * 4th Naval Warfare Flotilla (4. sjöstridsflj) located at

Berga Berga () is the capital of the ''comarca'' (county) of Berguedà, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is bordered by the municipalities of Cercs, Olvan, Avià, Capolat and Castellar del Riu. History Berga derives its name ...

at the Muskö naval base.

Amphibious units

1st Marine Regiment The 1st Marine Regiment is an infantry regiment of the United States Marine Corps based at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. The regiment is under the command of the 1st Marine Division and the I Marine Expeditionary Force. The 1s ...

() located in Berga * 4th Marine Regiment ()located in Gothenburg

Bases

* Muskö naval base, located at Muskö island in the Stockholm archipelago. The base serves as the headquarters of the Swedish Navy since September 2019. * Karlskrona naval base (MarinB), located at Karlskrona with detachments at Berga, Gothenburg and Skredsvik.

Training units

Swedish Naval Warfare Centre The Swedish Naval Warfare Centre ( sv, Sjöstridsskolan, SSS) is a joint naval school of the Swedish Navy which has been operating since 2005. The unit is based in Karlskrona Garrison in Karlskrona. History Prior to the Defence Act of 2004, the S ...

(SSS) located in Karlskrona

Equipment

In the decades following World War II, the Swedish Navy was organised around three light cruiser groups (, and ). In the early 1960s, a decision, known as Navy Plan 60 ( sv, Marinplan 60), was made to scrap the cruisers and move towards a larger fleet of smaller vessels. The last cruiser, ''Göta Lejon'', was sold in 1970 to Chile, where she was renamed '' Almirante Latorre''. The fleet at the time comprised some 24 destroyers and frigates for surface warfare (mainly in the Baltic Sea) and anti-submarine warfare. The Swedish Navy started to experiment with missiles, based on a recovered German

V-2 rocket The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name '' Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develop ...

, as early as 1944. The main armament of the fleet was artillery and torpedoes for surface warfare and anti-submarine rockets for anti-submarine warfare. Helicopters ( Alouette II and

Vertol 44 The Piasecki H-21 Workhorse/Shawnee is an American helicopter, the fourth of a line of tandem rotor helicopters designed and built by Piasecki Helicopter (later Boeing Vertol). Commonly called "the flying banana", it was a multi-mission helic ...

) were introduced in the late 1950s and 1960s and this fleet air arm remained an integral part of the fleet and its operations until an independent helicopter arm was created in the 1990s. The 1972 decision made by the Government to decommission all destroyers and frigates within the next decade limited the Navy's endurance considerably, but the use of smaller short-range ships was at the time deemed adequate for anti-shipping missions along the coast and in the archipelago. In the 1980s, this assessment was proven wrong by repeated failures in anti-submarine warfare operations with inadequate ships and equipment. Today, the largest (surface) combat ships are corvettes which combine surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare and mine clearance functions with a better endurance and seaworthiness than the budget fleet from the 1980s. Since the 1980s, Swedish surface warships have been named after Swedish cities, while submarines are named after

Swedish provinces The provinces of Sweden ( sv, Sveriges landskap) are historical, geographical and cultural regions. Sweden has 25 provinces; they have no administrative function (except for in some cases as sport districts), but remain historical legacies and ...

and minehunters after Swedish lighthouses. The surface ships are mostly small, relying on agility and flexibility. Examples of these are the ''Stockholm'' and ''Göteborg''-class corvettes. The Navy is currently taking into service the new, larger, of

stealth Stealth may refer to: Military *Stealth technology, technology used to conceal ships, aircraft, and missiles **Stealth aircraft, aircraft which use stealth technology **Stealth ground vehicle, ground vehicles which use stealth technology ** Stea ...

corvettes. A new submarine class, , similar to the older , was commissioned in 1998. Its air-independent

Stirling engine A Stirling engine is a heat engine that is operated by the cyclic compression and expansion of air or other gas (the '' working fluid'') between different temperatures, resulting in a net conversion of heat energy to mechanical work. More spe ...

enables submerged endurance never before seen in conventional submarines. ''Gotland'' has been on lease with crew and all to the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

and was based in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

. The Amphibious Battalion is built around the Stridsbåt 90H, a small combat boat capable of carrying 21 troops for fast transports and landings in the archipelago. It is also equipped with larger transport boats, but relies on the Army, Navy and Air Force for heavy transports and protection. Cooperation with the Royal Netherlands Navy is under investigation for Amphibious Warfare. The

() operate three types of helicopters:

NHIndustries NH90 The NHIndustries NH90 is a medium-sized, twin-engine, multi-role military helicopter. It was developed in response to NATO requirements for a battlefield helicopter which would also be capable of being operated in naval environments. The NH9 ...

(''HKP14'') (18 in service),

AgustaWestland AW109 The AgustaWestland AW109, originally the Agusta A109, is a lightweight, twin-engine, eight-seat multi-purpose helicopter designed and initially produced by the Italian rotorcraft manufacturer Agusta. It was the first all-Italian helicopter to ...

(''HKP15'') (20 in service) and

Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk is a four-blade, twin-engine, medium-lift Utility helicopter, utility military helicopter manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft. Sikorsky submitted the S-70 design for the United States Army's Utility Tactical Transpo ...

(''HKP16'') (15 in service). Eight of the AgustaWestland AW109 helicopters have been modified to be operational from the ''Visby''-class corvettes and . Nine of the NHIndustries NH90 helicopters are equipped with sonars and radars for anti-submarine warfare.

Upcoming investments

The next generation of submarines, the A26 class, was ordered from Saab Technologies in 2015 and will join the navy starting 2022. The two units will replace the submarines of . In parallel, the will undergo a mid-life upgrade. In 2017 a new intelligence ship to replace was ordered from Saab Technologies. The new ship is to be commissioned by 2020 and have a displacement of 2,300 tons. An additional 18 units of the Swedish version of the named Stridsbåt 90HSM, where "M" stands for "modernized", will be delivered to the Amphibious Corps during the end of 2018. Like previous versions, the units will be built at '' Dockstavarvet''.

Submarines

Surface vessels

Corvettes

Minesweepers

Patrol boats

Combat boats

Ocean patrol vessels

Signal intelligence vessels

Auxiliary vessels, major

Auxiliary vessels, others

Landing craft Landing craft are small and medium seagoing watercraft, such as boats and barges, used to convey a landing force ( infantry and vehicles) from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. The term excludes landing ships, which are large ...

** (appr. 100 in service) * Tugs ** Damen ASD3010 Coastal Tug ** Damen ASD3010 Coastal Tug * Torpedo salvage vessels ** * Transport ships ** HSwMS ''Loke'' (A344) ** HSwMS ''Nåttarö'' (A608) **''Lätt trossbåt'' Fast Supply Vessels (16 vessels in service) * Hovercraft ** ''Griffon 2000TD Hovercraft'' (3 craft in service)

Training ships

Schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoo ...

s ** ** * Ships for navigation education ** ** ** ** **

Commanders

Ranks

;Commissioned officer ranks The rank insignia of

commissioned officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent conte ...

s. ;Other ranks The rank insignia of

non-commissioned officer A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enli ...

s and

enlisted personnel An enlisted rank (also known as an enlisted grade or enlisted rate) is, in some armed services, any rank below that of a commissioned officer. The term can be inclusive of non-commissioned officers or warrant officers, except in United States m ...

References

External links

* *
Göran Frilund – ''The Swedish Navy 1788–1809''
{{Navies in Europe