Sweden to invest in new submarines
The Swedish Government proposes to spend billions of kronor on two new state-of the-art submarines while also upgrading two older vessels, Defence Minister Sten Tolgfors has revealed.
Mr. Tolgfors underlines that the Baltic Sea area remains stable, with only Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg breaking the circle of EU and NATO-affiliated countries, - however, one can never rule out long-term risks and incidents, which could also be of a military nature, Tolgfors wrote in the Stockholm daily Svenska Dagbladet.
The multi-billion kronor investment is to be included in next week’s spring budget proposal.
Swedish ship building company Kockums AB in February signed a contract with the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration regarding the construction of next-generation submarines. The two new submarines are planned to be delivered to the Swedish Navy in 2018-2019, and will be replacing two subs of the Södermanland class. Along with the two new vessels, two Gotland class attack submarines will also receive major upgrades as part of the investment.
Finland and Sweden have initiated and built up a system for joint surveillance of the Baltic Sea. The cooperation has expanded, and eight countries now share civilian and military information on maritime traffic in the Baltic Sea through the SUCBAS system. The Baltic Sea is trafficked by 2000-3000 vessels at all times. The oil transport in the area has doubled in amount and is expected to increase even more.
