Crown Princess Victoria Christened HMS Härnösand Today
(Source: Kockums AB; web-posted Dec. 21, 2004)
At a formal ceremony conducted at Kockums in Karlskrona at 4 p.m. today, Thursday December 16th, Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria christened the third “stealth” vessel of the Visby series.
The band of the Royal Swedish Navy played, a standard-bearer and Guard of Honour was in attendance and, as well as the 175 guests from some ten countries, many of Kockums’ own employees were naturally at the ceremony.
The vessel to be christened was new building 456. Crown Princess Victoria christened her with the following words: “With the consent of His Majesty the King of Sweden, I name this vessel Härnösand. May joy and success be your companion on the ocean and may you form a strong link in the chain of our defence.”
Kockums’ marketing department had arranged a seminar on the stealth concept during the day, for specially invited guests, entitled “Swedish High Tech in Littoral Warfare”. HMS Helsingborg, the second vessel in the Visby series, put out to sea with a number of VIP guests. A special trip was arranged for the Crown Princess, at her own request.
HMS Härnösand, like the other vessels in the series, is constructed of carbon fibre. She involves a “total” stealth concept. The “stealth technology” concept comprises everything that can minimise signatures and signals, with a view to making detection and identification more difficult or perhaps avoiding it completely. The vessels in this series are extremely difficult to detect with radar or any other modern sophisticated technology.
Kockums is building a total of five vessels in the Visby series for the Swedish Navy. The concept has attracted considerable attention around the world.
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