Swedish Navy
The Swedish Navy (Swedish: Svenska marine ) is the maritime arm of the Swedish armed forces. It consists of over-and underwater units - the Fleet ( Flottan ) - as well as naval infantry units, the so-called Amphibious Corps ( Amfibiekåren ).
History
On 7 June 1522 only a year after the fall of Sweden from the Kalmar Union, King Gustav I bought a number of ships of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck. This was the birth of the Swedish Navy. The Vasa was a ship of the Swedish Navy, which ( flottan Kungliga ) then as the Royal Swedish Navy was known in the 17th century.
The Amphibious Corps dates back to January 1, 1902, when a separate " Coastal Artillery " ( Kustartilleriet ) were prepared and navies henceforth acted as the name throughout the branch of service. In the last decade of the 20th century, the coastal fortifications were abandoned and the troops formed into a regular Marines, which is called Amphibious Corps since 2000.
In a tense period of the Cold War, the Swedish Navy saw several times faced in the early 1980s with " phantom " or Soviet submarines, which entered the archipelago. On October 27, 1981, the Soviet U- 137 of the Whiskey - class was in a restricted area before Karlskrona on the basis of what had been an international scandal resulted.
Since 2006, Sweden also involved with the Navy in UN missions. The HMS Gävle was involved in the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon before.
Order
For many years the Swedish Navy had only one job: a large-scale invasion of the Baltic Sea to stop, preferably by causing great losses before the enemy reached the coast. With the collapse of the Soviet Union at that time realistic threat and the order disappeared was redefined in parts. It is still the defensive character of the Navy in the foreground, but also international operations under the EU membership of Sweden and the UN are now conceivable.
The Army and the Air Force have a strong presence in UN missions, but the Navy did not have so far of through the necessary equipment, as they had been too specialized in the coastal defense. This begins to change now with the introduction of the new Visby corvettes, which correspond approximately to the necessary size in international missions.
Organization
Until recently, the Navy of the rank of Vice Admiral mostly in standing Navy Commander ( Chefen för navies, CM ) was passed. This office was abolished: today is the highest officer of the Navy Naval Inspector ( Marininspektören ), Rear Admiral Anders Grenstad.
The Amphibious Corps uses the same rank order as the army. The current Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces, General Håkan Syren, dates from this strike force in the Navy.
Marine units
Amphibious units
- Amphibious Regiment ( Amf 1) stationed in Berga
- Bevakningsbåtkompaniet (formerly AMF 4) in Gothenburg
Bases
- Naval Base ( Marinb ) Karlskrona
Equipment
Unlike foreign navies the Swedish Navy was formed in 1958 in a pure coastal defense. Therefore has no units with wide range of applications, such as aircraft carriers, cruisers, nuclear submarines and destroyers. The largest combat ships are corvettes today. This limits the scope of the Navy, but smaller ships were for use on the coast, viewed in the archipelago and the Baltic Sea to be better suited.
Most surface units of the Swedish Navy are after Swedish cities, the submarines named after Swedish provinces, however. The surface units are mostly small and rely on speed and flexibility. Examples are the corvettes Stockholm and Gothenburg classes. Currently, the Navy a new larger class in service: the stealth corvette Visby class. Also, a new submarine class Gotland, similar to the older Västergötland class was given recently in order. Your air- independent Stirling engine enables a conventional submarines unprecedented duration of the submarine ride.
Main transport vehicle of the Amphibious Corps is the Stridsbåt 90H, a small continuous tape of 21 soldiers fighting boat for fast transports and landings in the archipelago. The Corps is also equipped with larger transport boats, but depends for heavy transports and back cover of the naval forces off.