Sweden has picked France’s Naval Group to supply four of its FDI frigates in a deal that could be worth more than 40 billion Swedish kroner, or around US$4.2 billion, with the French offer beating proposals from Spain’s Navantia and the United Kingdom’s Babcock International.
The frigates are expected to cost a little over 10 billion Swedish kroner each, with the final price depending on the integrated equipment and systems, Swedish Defence Minister Pål Jonson said in a press conference in Stockholm on Tuesday. The vessels will be equipped with MBDA’s Aster 30 missiles for long-range air defense.
The frigate purchase represents one of Sweden’s biggest defense investments since the Gripen fighter jet in the 1980s and will triple the country’s air-defense capabilities, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said. For Naval Group, the selection is a welcome win after Norway in August last year picked the U.K.’s Type 26 frigate, primarily manufactured by BAE Systems, over the smaller French design.
Rapid delivery is “absolutely essential given the very serious security situation we are currently in,” Jonson said. With the FDI, “Sweden is acquiring a highly advanced surface combatant for which an adversary would also need to allocate significant resources to counter,” he said.
Sweden picked the Naval Group vessel, known in French as the Frégate de Défense et d’Intervention, due to a combination of delivery time, an active production line ensuring a “very high degree of delivery reliability,” and an integrated and proven air-defense system, according to Jonson. He also cited the possibility of sharing costs with FDI operators France and Greece as important.