The ''Styrsö'' class is a series of

mine countermeasures vessel A mine countermeasures vessel or MCMV is a type of naval ship designed for the location of and destruction of naval mine A naval mine is a self-contained explosive weapon placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Sim ...

s 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 ...

built from glass fibre. Among its intended missions are

naval mine A naval mine is a self-contained explosive weapon placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Similar to anti-personnel mine, anti-personnel and other land mines, and unlike purpose launched naval depth charges, they are ...

detection, mine hunting and patrolling. The ships are named after islands from four different archipelagos of Sweden. In 2004 HSwMS ''Spårö'' and HSwMS ''Sturkö'' were modernised, pulling out some of their capability for traditional mine clearance in favour of extended human dive support, the modified vessels are occasionally called ''Spårö'' class.

Description

The ships are equipped for acoustic, magnetic and mechanical mine clearance. There is also an underwater vehicle type ''Uven'' and a

towed array sonar A towed array sonar is a system of hydrophones towed behind a submarine or a surface ship on a cable. Trailing the hydrophones behind the vessel, on a cable that can be kilometers long, keeps the array's sensors away from the ship's own noise sou ...

on board. It is also possible to manoeuvre the remote-controlled mine clearance system "SAM" from the ships. The ''Styrsö''-class ships have very good manoeuvring properties and are used for hunting bottom mines, traditional mine sweeping and operating in coastal waters. They carry underwater

remotely-operated vehicle A remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROUV) or remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is a free-swimming submersible craft used to perform underwater observation, inspection and physical tasks such as valve operations, hydraulic functions and other ge ...

s (ROVs) of the type ''Uven'' and are prepared for the next generation of ROVs called ''ROV S''. The class is built exclusively with civilian technology, so-called (

COTS COTS may refer to: * Commercial off-the-shelf, products that are commercially available and can be bought "as is" * Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, a NASA program for delivery to the International Space Station by private companies * ...

), everything from

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

s to the computers on board have been bought from the civilian market. This method simplifies the procedure of upgrading the system, it is also very cost-effective eliminating the need to develop new expensive military systems. The ships have a completely integrated command and navigation system with computer communication and projection of charts in a 3D environment.

History

The class consists of four ships that were built from 1996 to 1997. They are an important addition to the Swedish mine clearance ability. In 2004 HSwMS ''Spårö'' and HSwMS ''Sturkö'' were modernised, pulling out some of their capability for traditional mine clearance in favour of extended human dive support, the modified vessels are occasionally called ''Spårö'' class.

Units

References

Minröjningsfartyget Styrsö - Försvarsmakten
* Örlogsboken 2003 {{DEFAULTSORT:Styrso Class Mine Countermeasures Vessel Mine warfare vessels of the Swedish Navy Mine warfare vessel classes