Future HSwMS Artemis (A 202), Sweden’s latest signals intelligence (SIGINT) ship, has begun sea trials from Saab Kockums’ shipyard in Karlskrona.
The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) gave Saab the go-ahead to develop and construct the new SIGINT ship in 2017. It is intended to replace the early 1980s-built HSwMS Orion (A 201) intelligence-gathering vessel of the Royal Swedish Navy (RSwN).
In 2018, the Polish Armaments Group’s (PGZ) Nauta Shiprepair Yard in Gdynia, Poland, began building the ship as part of a subcontract with Saab. The ship was launched in April 2019, and according to the initial schedule, it was supposed to be put into service in 2020. The contract was later terminated, though, after the shipyard experienced financial problems, and the unfinished hull was towed to Sweden in February 2021 so that Kockums could finish it there.
Artemis is much bigger than Orion, with a full load displacement of 2,300 tonnes, an overall length of 74 meters, a 14-meter beam, and a 3.9-meter draft.
