Overview
- Sweden, which announced the choice Tuesday, will buy four Defense and Intervention (FDI) frigates from France’s Naval Group to expand its navy.
- Deliveries start in 2030 with a fully equipped first ship, followed by one vessel each year through 2033.
- Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the ships will roughly triple Sweden’s air-defense capacity, with the FDI design able to carry up to 32 Aster 30 missile silos.
- Naval Group beat bids from Britain’s Babcock, Spain’s Navantia and Sweden’s Saab after Stockholm prioritized fast delivery of a proven model and looked at sharing costs with partners such as Greece.
- Stockholm will negotiate to fit Swedish systems, including Saab anti-ship missiles and BAE Systems Bofors guns, and it plans to assign maintenance to a Swedish shipyard.