M14 HMS Sturkö
Class overview
NameStyrsö class
BuildersKockums
Operators Swedish Navy
Built1996–1997
Completed4
Active4
General characteristics
TypeMine countermeasures vessel
Displacement205 t (202 long tons)
Length36.0 m (118 ft 1 in)
Beam7.9 m (25 ft 11 in)
Draught2.2 m (7 ft 3 in)
Speed13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Complement10 officers and 8 ratings
Armament2 × 12.7 mm (0.50 in) machine guns

The Styrsö class is a series of mine countermeasures vessels in service with the Swedish Navy built from glass fiber. Among its intended missions are naval mine 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 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 operates in coastal waters. They carry underwater remotely-operated vehicles (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), everything from diesel engines 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

Bow number Ship name Laid down Launched Commissioned Note
M11 Styrsö 1996 Converted to command and supply vessel
M12 Spårö 30 August 1996 21 February 1997 Converted to diving support vessel
17 (M13) Skaftö 1997 1997 Converted to command and supply vessel
M14 Sturkö 1998 Converted to diving support vessel

References

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