20-Year-Old Swedish Navy Ship Is Still The Most Futuristic Looking

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20-Year-Old Swedish Navy Ship Is Still The Most Futuristic Looking
By: H I Sutton Aerospace & Defense News & Forbes News - 06-21-20
Re: https://www.forbes.com/sites/hisutto.../#443c5e8a2c45

1st. Photo link: https://specials-images.forbesimg.co...=47&cropY2=845
The distinctive lines of the Visby Class reduce its radar signature. The water spray at the back ...[*] US NAVY

The Swedish Navy’s Visby class warship has a distinctive look. It’s sharp lines, minimalist superstructure and absence of almost everything you normally associate with what ships look like makes her arguably the most futuristic warship afloat. And it is all because of one thing, stealth. Other warships also incorporate stealthy features, but none take it as far as the Visby Class.

So it may be surprising that the Visby class is already 20 years old. The first of six ships was laid down in 1995 and launched on June 8 2000. It was cutting edge then, and thanks to significant upgrades it is still cutting edge today. And despite its bold step into the future, the Visby class is not a white elephant. It is fully operational with the Swedish Navy.

One of its most distinctive features is the fully enclosed automatic cannon at the front. It is the same Swedish designed 57mm weapon that is used on the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships (LCS). But while the U.S. Navy adopted a generally low-profile version with sloping sides, it isn’t fully enclosed in a stealth casing like the Visby’s. That is unique. To fire, the a hatch opens and the gun’s barrel pops up.

Other weapons include anti-submarine torpedoes (the latest Torped-47 is currently being deployed) and long range RBS-15 dual purpose anti-ship / land-attack cruise missiles. Both of these systems are invisible from the outside. They are hidden behind doors in the side to help reduce the radar signature. And they are joined by the Double-Eagle Mk III remotely operated vehicle, a type of robot which can be used to search for mines.

2nd photo link: https://specials-images.forbesimg.co...=40&cropY2=708
The latest type of anti-submarine torpedo being launched from a Visby Class corvette. Note the ...[*] FMV

Visby’s stealthy lines are part of what the builder, Saab, calls Genuine Holistic Stealth (GHOST). It aims to minimize the ship’s transmitted and reflected energies, meaning heat, light, sound, electric potential, and electromagnetic radiation. In other words, to make it as close to invisible as is possible. Stealth aircraft do the same thing, but they are much smaller. And other ships do not take it as far.

If there were such a thing as a competition for the most futuristic warship afloat, Visby’s only real competition would be the U.S. Navy’s Zumwalt class destroyer. There are a lot of similarities in overall design terms, but the Zumwalt is much larger and more heavily armed. And about 20 times more expensive.

Zumwalt also features fully enclosed main guns. And was in fact intended to be fitted with the exact same fully enclosed 57mm cannons from the Visby class but this was later left off. Yet if it comes to a toss-up over which is most impressively futuristic, remember that the first Zumwalt class ship was laid down over 15 years after Visby.

3rd Photo link: https://specials-images.forbesimg.co...135&cropY2=813
HMS Smyge (foreground) is part-hovercraft, while the Visby Class (in background) are more normal ...[*] H I SUTTON

Even so, Visby wasn’t the first radically stealthy warship for the Swedish Navy. Back in 1990, just as the world was waking up to the F-117 Nighthawk ‘stealth fighter’, Sweden was building HMS Smyge which was a truly stealthy warship. Smyge is a ‘surface effect ship’ meaning that she is half hovercraft, half hydrofoil. She was the test bed for the technologies used on Visby. And she is still in service as a training vessel.

Today the Visby class remains visually and technologically cutting-edge. And despite shipbuilding generally heading in a similar direction, she seems set to stand out from the crowd for many years to come.

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Personal note: I wonder if the US sorta seen this design earlier and made theirs in the same configuration. Pretty cool design for 20 years old!

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