France starts building Sweden's first new frigate

Naval Group has started building the first of four new frigates for Sweden, cutting steel for the future HSwMS Luleå at its shipyard in Lorient, France, on Oct. 1, just one month after Stockholm signed the contract.

The first ship is due for delivery in 2030, the French shipbuilder said. Sweden’s Defence Materiel Administration, known as FMV, signed the deal for four frigates on Aug. 31. The contract is worth about 47 billion Swedish kronor (about $4.8 billion) and also covers training, spares and support.

Rear Adm. Fredrik Lindén, head of naval systems at FMV, led the steel-cutting ceremony. Sweden’s ambassador to France, Caroline Vicini, attended.

“All Naval Group sites and teams are fully involved in the success of the programme, in close cooperation with the FMV both in France and in Sweden,” said Vincent Martinot-Lagarde, Naval Group’s executive vice president for surface ships.

The Swedish ships, known in Sweden as the Luleå class, are based on France’s Defense and Intervention Frigate, or FDI, recognizable by its forward-sloping inverted bow. The ship is about 122 m (400 feet) long, displaces roughly 4,500 tonnes and carries a crew of about 125, with room for a helicopter the size of an NH90 and a drone.

Sweden’s version will be armed differently from the French ships. It will carry Aster 30 long-range air defense missiles along with shorter-range CAMM-ER missiles, plus anti-ship missiles, lightweight torpedoes, and 57 mm and 40 mm guns. The CAMM-ER missiles will be fired from a new cold-launch system developed by Naval Group, Navy Lookout reported.

Sweden picked the French design in May after a competition against Britain’s Babcock, which offered its Arrowhead 120 with Saab, and Spain’s Navantia, which proposed its ALFA 4000 frigate. Speed of delivery was the main reason Sweden chose Naval Group, according to Navy Lookout. The contract was signed in Stockholm aboard the French Navy’s first FDI, Amiral Ronarc’h, in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

The choice broke with Sweden’s long habit of building its own warships at home. In 2021, FMV had paid Saab Kockums to study a design for new Swedish-built corvettes before the program shifted to buying larger frigates abroad.

Naval Group says it has invested for years in its shipyards and can now deliver two FDI frigates a year from Lorient, using local construction and partnerships with other European yards to keep up the pace. Thirteen of the ships have been ordered so far for three NATO navies: five for France, four for Greece and four for Sweden.

The French Navy took delivery of Amiral Ronarc’h in October 2025. Greece received its first ship, HS Kimon, two months later, with two more Greek frigates due in 2026. France’s second FDI is due in 2027, and Naval Group said it still has open delivery slots from 2030.

Naval Group has said it will work with Swedish industry on the program. In February, it signed an agreement with Swedish shipyard Oresund Drydocks covering future maintenance and service support for Swedish naval vessels.

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