1.2 billion Euros. That’s the quoted cost for Finland’s four new Pohjanmaa-class corvettes being built under the Squadron 2020-project. An estimate thrown around is that roughly half of that sum is the ship itself, and the other half is the naval specific items. While Rauma Marine Construction, RMC, has more or less secured the shipbuilding contract, the fight is still on for the “battle system”. This consists of the weapons, sensors, combat management system, and their integration into the vessel, and with a contract likely coming in at over half a billion Euros, it has certainly grabbed the attention of the shortlisted companies.

One of these is Saab (the other two being Atlas Elektronik GmbH and Lockheed Martin Canada Inc), and this means that I find myself together with a small group of Finnish journalists and their photographers in a nondescript conference room at Saab’s facilities in Järfälla just outside of Stockholm. The large site include a number of different production as well as R&D facilities, and everything is designated a protected site by the Swedish authorities, meaning that we have to pay close attention to what we are allowed to take pictures of. The reason is simple.

Things happen quite often, more than you know.

What exactly happens is left open to imagination, but it is clear that it includes both cyber security as well as people physically moving around in the vicinity of the site.

But if Saab isn’t too keen on discussing the details of attempts at intelligence gathering directed against them, they are very keen on discussing Finland. “It’s almost a home market for us”, senior director for Naval Combat Systems Mickael Hansson explains. “We are very proud of that as well” he says and points to the currently installed product base in the Finnish Navy. This covers everything from the Trackfire remote weapon system which the Navy has developed something of a love affair with (it has been bought for all three classes being built or undergoing MLU’s during the last years), via radars, remotely operated vehicles, communication systems, missiles, and on to the 9LV combat management system.

The 9LV is found in the Rauma-class, and soon in the Hamina as well as the system was chosen for the MLU. When asked what he believes were the deciding factors, Jonas Widerström, Saab’s Naval Sales Director Finland, mentions price, harmonisation with the Rauma-class, and above all the robustness of the system. Widerström should know, being a retired naval anti-aircraft officer having served aboard Swedish corvettes he has ample experience of the 9LV. Interestingly enough, the Hamina-class currently sports Atlas Elektronik’s ANCS 2000 but instead of upgrading this the Finnish Defence Forces chose to tear it out and replace it with Saab’s offering. While the Hamina MLU technically isn’t related to the Squadron 2020 CMS contract, it is clear that the MLU-contract means that Saab is the favourite for the larger deal as well. And Saab doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to this.

We want to win this.

How is Saab then planning on doing this? The talking points comes as no surprise. They include a “comprehensive industrial participation package” and the value of having a harmonised C3I system with not only the Hamina-class but with the Swedish ships of the Swedish-Finnish Naval Task Group (SFNTG) as well. The 9LV is also sporting “pretty advanced” capabilities when it comes to converting between national and international data links and “very good sensor fusion software” with a rapid response time. Saab also points out that they have worked with the ESSM before on the Halifax-class (ironically as part of a team led by Lockheed Martin Canada), a system which “can be, maybe be on the SQ2020”.

To top off the offer Saab is bringing their own sensor suite. This is centered around the Saab Lightweight Integrated Mast (completely unironically abbreviated SLIM) which will be manufactured by Saab and delivered as a complete subassembly to the yard for installation aboard the ship. As a parenthesis, Saab explained that the renders showed this particular SLIM-setup “on another ship” and not on the Pohjanmaa-class. Hmm, I wonder what ship that could be…?

The mast sports a number of sensors and communication antennas, the most important of which are the vessels main active sensors: the Sea Giraffe 4A FF (Fixed Face) and a single rotating Sea Giraffe 1X found inside. Keen readers of the blog will remember that Saab originally planned for a setup with a single rotating 4A accompanying the rotating 1X, and while the head of marketing and sales for Surface Radar Solutions Pontus Djerf (another retired commander) maintain that it is an solution that’s “often good enough”, the fixed face version is more future proof and provides additional benefits. As the project has proceeded, this has led Saab to swap out the rotating 4A to the FF. The fixed 1 x 2 meter AESA-arrays cut response times, but it does not replace the need for the 1X. Instead the two complementing radars operate in S- and X-band respectively (in addition any CEROS FCS-systems would bring a K_u-band radar to the ship) which brings a certain amount of redundancy and jamming resistance while also providing radars optimised for slightly different roles. In short, the 4A looks at the larger picture, while the 1X has shorter range but better resolution. Notably both radars sport features borrowed from Saab’s work with artillery location radars and small targets (such as UAV’s), or C-RAM and ELSS respectively.

These are all interesting features for the Finnish Defence Forces, because as opposed to blue water fleets, the Finnish Navy is very much a force present on the right flank of the battlefield in any potential conflict. As such, the corvettes will play an important role in the grander picture (‘joint’ is a keyword for both the Squadron 2020 and the HX-programs) when it comes to establishing situational awareness and providing medium-ranged anti-aircraft support around the most populous areas of Finland. To be able to fill the needs of higher command, a serious sensor array of both active and passive systems coupled with an effective combat management system and the datalinks to share this information. Saab seems confident that they have the solution, and that they do so at a balanced cost/performance-ratio. We will have to wait for a few months and see if the Finnish Navy agrees.