Swedish FMV Awards Saab £70m Order for 22 Next-Gen CB90 Combat Boats

Published:

July 7, 2025

Updated:

July 7, 2025

Swedish FMV Awards Saab £70m Order for 22 Next-Gen CB90 Combat Boats

Courtesy photo by Royal Netherlands Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Jan Eenling

The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) has awarded Saab a contract for 22 additional CB90 fast assault boats, placing a fresh £70 million order that lifts Sweden’s amphibious capacity at a moment when Baltic security demands rapid response craft.

Defense officials confirm the agreement carries a value of about SEK 900 million, booked in the second quarter of 2025 and scheduled for delivery in batches from late-2025 through 2028.

According to industry sources close to the program, all boats will leave Saab’s Docksta yard on Sweden’s High Coast, where a production line dedicated to the CB90 series has run almost continuously since the late 1980s. The yard already handles the ten-boat order signed last year and will run both contracts in parallel.

Mats Wicksell, who heads Saab’s Kockums business area, states that the repeat order “confirms continued confidence in the platform and secures a vital capability for coastal defense.”

The new craft match the CB90 Next-Generation baseline and keep the well-known outline – steep bow ramp, twin waterjets, and an all-aluminum hull. Here are the main specs:

Length: 16 m
Beam: 3.8 m
Draft: 0.9 m
Top speed: 40 knots in calm water
Load: 18 fully equipped marines plus two crew
Armament: one stabilized 12.7 mm or 30 mm mount, two 7.62 mm guns, 40 mm grenade launcher provision
Mission kits: mine-laying rails, anti-submarine depth-charge racks, sensor masts, UAV launch lockers.

Our analysis shows that the Next-Generation configuration gains a new combat management console, an updated electronic architecture, and revised ballistics protection panels without altering hull form.

Sweden first fielded the CB90 in 1991 and has exported variants to Norway, Greece, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the United States, and – via third-party transfers – Ukraine. The order announced this week ensures the home fleet stays numerically ahead of customer navies that now deploy more than 300 hulls worldwide.

Last June FMV bought ten boats as a bridge batch to replace life-expired craft and keep the line warm. The new 22-boat order completes the recapitalization plan outlined in Sweden’s 2024 defense bill and doubles annual output at Docksta for at least the next three years.

While Saab does not release employment figures, local union officials say the ramp-up secures skilled aluminum-welding and systems-integration jobs “well past 2027,” providing stability for a community of fewer than a thousand residents.

Defense officials confirm the craft will equip the 1st and 2nd Amphibious Battalions, which shifted to a dispersed basing model after Sweden joined NATO. The boats give each battalion a self-deploying troop lift element that can maneuver inside archipelagos and conduct short-notice resupply to island garrisons.

Finland, Estonia, and Latvia have requested costed options for the same hull so they can align future joint maritime task-groups with Swedish platforms. Saab notes that the design’s modular deck makes fit-out “plug-and-play,” allowing allies to tailor sensors or weapons without reopening class certification.

Additional growth margin remains: the propulsion train already accepts hybrid-electric boosters tested under the Swedish Navy’s Green Fleet initiative. If funded, a follow-on retrofit could add silent approach capability under battery power for special-operations insertions.

From a budget standpoint, the £70 million package sits inside Stockholm’s 2025 supplemental naval allocation and avoids parliamentary debate. Deliveries will follow a spiral schedule – six boats per year for the first three years, the remainder in 2028 – spreading cost and training load.

Saab expects first metal to be cut in September once long-lead items arrive. Suppliers include Kamewa for waterjets, Scania for high-output diesels, and L3Harris – through Saab Denmark – for the integrated bridge. Shipyard managers state that inflation clauses in the contract protect vendors from volatile alloy prices.

Defense planners view the CB90 fleet as a deterrent multiplier: it can seed remote missile teams on skerries one hour, then lift coastal rangers off another beach the next. The order therefore aligns with Sweden’s wider shift from static coastal artillery to mobile, networked forces.

According to a Stockholm-based naval analyst, the deal also helps Saab hold hull prices steady in export talks. With a firm domestic baseline, the yard can quote stable numbers to foreign customers who often prefer to ride on the back of a national program.

No classified subsystems appear in the public contract notice, and Saab officials decline to discuss sensor fit. However, one official notes that “all customer security filters” apply, suggesting the boats will ship with blank spaces for government-furnished electronic warfare kits.

The 22-boat deal marks the third consecutive year in which FMV has placed a naval order with Saab above SEK 600 million, underscoring a procurement tempo not seen since the late Cold War. That pace shows little sign of slowing; FMV already floats a request for information on a mid-life upgrade for the Visby-class corvette, which shares mission network hardware with the CB90 NG.

In short, the order locks in production, adds capacity for both defense and deterrence, and keeps Sweden’s small-boat yard at full throttle during an uncertain security climate. Saab now carries a healthy backlog that stretches well into the second half of the decade, giving planners and sailors alike a clear line of sight to a refreshed amphibious fleet.

Swedish FMV Awards Saab £70m Order for 22 Next-Gen CB90 Combat Boats

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