Construction of the Swedish Navy’s special purpose signal intelligence (SIGINT) ship officially got underway with a steel cutting ceremony at the Polish Nauta Shipyard on March 1.
The ceremony was also attended by officials from Saab, the Swedish defence group, which awarded the ship construction contract to the Nauta Shipyard in 2017.
The special purpose ship will be built in Poland and fitted out at Saab’s shipyard in Karlskrona, Sweden, before being delivered to the Swedish Navy.
The first steel cutting takes place following intense cooperation between Saab and the Nauta Shipyard, supported by the MMC ship design and marine consulting company.
“The steel cutting ceremony marks the successful completion of the ship design stage and the beginning of production work. This contract for a special purpose ship, a key asset in any naval portfolio, is very important from the point of view of the end user, the Swedish Navy and requires special handling from the shipyard doing the work,” says Jyrki Kujansuu, vice president, Poland and Baltic States at Saab.
“We were originally chosen by Saab as a trusted partner in shipbuilding after a long selection process. Similar to our Swedish partner we are happy to have performed the first steel cutting for the ship. We can now progress on to full-scale production,” explains Adam Potrykus, vice-president of the board of the Nauta Shipyard.
The new vessel is set to replace the 33-year old HMS Orion which the Swedish Navy currently uses for SIGINT purposes.