Styrsö-class mine countermeasures vessel
Introduction 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 numberShip nameLaid downLaunchedCommissionedNoteM111996Converted to command and supply vesselM1230 August 199621 February 1997Converted to diving support vessel17 (M13)19971997Converted to command and supply vesselM141998Converted to diving support vessel
References *  Minröjningsfartyget Styrsö - Försvarsmakten * Örlogsboken 2003