The Swedish Navy has Developed Lightweight Torpedoes Increasing its Firepower Considerably

SWEDEN has since Napoleonic times followed a policy of neutrality but this doesn’t mean that it has no fighting capacity and indeed has a unique feature in its submarines that no other country has available.

The current Gotland Class submarines were developed and built by the Kockums shipyard in Sweden and with advice from the USA, their Stirling engine air-independent propulsion (AIP) system allows them to stay underwater for weeks (which was previously only possible in nuclear submarines).

So, they are stealthy but have an additional secret which is that they can be equipped with ultra-light torpedoes and have at least two firing tubes which can take two torpedoes at once.

They are wire-guided which means that they can manoeuvre around obstacles rather than explode because something is in the way and the lightweight torpedoes are perfectly capable of sinking another submarine or ship.

The use of these armaments means that the Gotland class submarine has four normal and two much thinner tubes, allowing it to fire eight torpedoes out of six tubes.

Written by

John Smith

Married to Ophelia in Gibraltar in 1978, John has spent much of his life travelling on security print and minting business and visited every continent except Antarctica. Having retired several years ago, the couple moved to their house in Estepona and John became a regular news writer for the EWN Media Group taking particular interest in Finance, Gibraltar and Costa del Sol Social Scene. Currently he is acting as Editorial Consultant for the paper helping to shape its future development. Share your story with us by emailing newsdesk@euroweeklynews.com, by calling +34 951 38 61 61 or by messaging our Facebook page www.facebook.com/EuroWeeklyNews

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