The French Navy received its first FDI frigate from Naval Group, Amiral Ronarc’h, in Brest on 17 October 2025. (Naval Group)
Sweden’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Armed Forces announced on 19 May 2026 at a press conference in Stockholm that they will begin negotiations to procure four Frégate de Défense et d’Intervention (FDI) vessels for their future frigate force.
The ships will be delivered from 2030 and are part of the navy’s updated role since Sweden joined NATO, the Swedish Armed Forces said in a 19 May press release.
The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration will shortly start talks with the French government and Naval Group, six years after Sweden’s 2020 decision to strengthen its surface combatant force. Initially a vessel similar to Sweden’s Visby class was discussed, but larger in size to accommodate new weapons and sensors.
The 2022 full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, and Sweden’s entry NATO, changed the requirements for the vessels, the Armed Forces said. The Supreme Commander (ÖB) of the Swedish Armed Forces, Michael Claesson, said on 19 May 2026 that “we move from contesting the control of others to establishing maritime control ourselves.”
Supreme Commander Claesson said that recent conflict showed the importance of ships as mobile air defence platforms. He added that since December 2025 Sweden has been part of NATO’s joint operations area North West, which is basically the entire North Atlantic, including the Baltic Sea area, meaning these frigates would be expected to operate beyond Baltic waters.
Chief of the Navy Johan Norlén said that “we must also contribute to the alliance’s needs outside our immediate vicinity, which requires larger ships with qualified air defence and longer endurance,” referring to the task of securing sea lines of communication (SLOCs).
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