Sweden's Stealthy Visby Corvettes Getting Mk 41 Based Vertical Launch Systems For Air Defense Missiles

Yahoo

15-04-2025

Lockheed Martin has confirmed Sweden's Visby class corvettes will use three-cell Extensible Launching System (ExLS) launchers to fire their forthcoming Common Anti-air Modular Missiles (CAMM). Adding CAMM to the stealthy ships' arsenals will give them a valuable air defense capability they currently do not have, but the ExLS arrays also opens the door to more readily integrating additional anti-air and anti-surface munitions.
Edward Dobeck, Director of Launching Systems at Lockheed Martin, talked about his company's work relating to the Visby class in an interview with TWZ's Howard Altman from the floor of the Navy League's Sea Air Space 2025 exhibition earlier this week. Lockheed Martin provided additional details in response to follow-up questions from TWZ. European missile conglomerate MBDA, which manufactures CAMM, first announced Sweden's five Visby corvettes would be getting the new anti-air missiles back in 2023, but did not say what launchers would go along with them.
'So Sweden has a three-cell launcher that is being used primarily for the CAMM missile right now. That is providing them additional capabilities,' Dobeck said. 'Sweden is looking at putting their launchers on the Visby class of ship … So now that they're [Sweden] part of NATO, this provides them a great solution to provide them some vertical launch capability and bring that over to them.'
'The Vertical Launch solution for Visby is the 3-Cell Extensible Launching Systems (ExLS),' a Lockheed Martin representative also said when asked specifically what launcher Dobeck had been referring to.
An artist's conception of a CAMM-armed Visby that MBDA previously released shows a trio of three-cell launchers on the ship. CAMM can be quad-packed into each ExLS cells, which will allow the corvettes to carry up to 36 of the missiles at a time. The Visby class ships are also getting a version of MBDA's complete Sea Ceptor air defense system to allow them to employ their new missiles.
'Sea Ceptor is a latest generation naval air defence system, providing robust self- and local area- air defence against simultaneous attacks, including saturation attacks, across the full 360° threat axis,' MBDA said in its 2023 press release about integrating CAMM onto the Visby class. 'With a wide target set from supersonic anti-ship missiles to attack helicopters and un-crewed air vehicles, the system has been designed to counter advanced threats.'
The 10-and-a-half foot long and six-and-a-half inch wide CAMM leverages elements of the infrared-homing AIM-132 Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM), but is an active-radar guided design. CAMM has a stated range of at least 15.5 miles, according to MBDA.
Lockheed Martin co-developed the ExLS with MDBA. ExLS leverages technology Lockheed Martin's combat-proven Mk 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS), variants of which are in service with the U.S. Navy and the naval arms of many other countries. ExLS is, however, not directly compatible with the canisterized missiles available for Mk 41-series launchers.
ExLS was also developed with a clear focus, at least initially, on being able to fire CAMM, with the first ejection tests of those missiles from the launcher coming in 2017. Lockheed Martin says ExLS paired with Sea Ceptor can simultaneously prepare three CAMMs to fire from a single three-cell array.
CAMM-Extended Range (CAMM-ER) and CAMM-Medium Range (CAMM-MR) versions, with maximum ranges of around 28 miles and 62 miles, respectively, have also been in development. CAMM-ER and CAMM-MR are physically larger than the baseline CAMM, and how many, if any, might be able to fit into an ExLS launcher is unclear.
As already noted, ExLS launchers loaded with even with standard CAMMs will immediately fill a significant gap in the existing arsenal of the Visby class corvettes. Each of the ships currently has separate launchers for up to eight RBS 15 Mk 2 anti-ship cruise missiles and four 400mm torpedos, as well as the ability to fire depth charges and deploy naval mines. The ships also all have a single Bofors 57mm Mk 3 naval gun that is hidden inside a stealthy turret on the bow when not in use.
The ExLS launchers, which are designed around modular payload adapters and an open-architecture systems backend, could also help the Visby class corvettes to fire other munitions, as well as decoys, in the future. In terms of missiles, in addition to CAMM, Lockheed Martin has pitched ExLS as a launching system for the Block 2 version of the surface-to-air RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM), as well as the AGM-114L Longbow Hellfire and AGM-179 Joint Air to Ground Missile (JAGM) – all quad-packed. RAM is also in service on a variety of U.S. Navy ships and is now set to be fitted on all of the service's Arleigh Burke class destroyers. Longbow Hellfire and JAGM were designed originally to engage targets on land and at sea. Longbow Hellfire now also has a demonstrated capability against drones, including from naval platforms, and Lockheed Martin is working toward similar anti-air capabilities for JAGM.
ExLS could also be used to launch Nulka decoys, each of which contains an electronic warfare system that actively pumps out signals that mimic the signature of a large warship to help lure away incoming radar-guided anti-ship cruise missiles. Nulka is also designed to hover in mid-air for a period after launch.
Previous reports have said that the integration of CAMM and the rest of the Sea Ceptor system onto the first Visby class corvette is slated to begin sometime this year, with the work taking around 12 months to complete. The timeline for when all five ships will have received this new capability is unclear.
We do now know that the integration will also include installing three ExLS vertical launch systems onto each of Visby class ships, which could help pave the way for the addition of other capabilities down the line.
Howard Altman contributed to this story.
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