Sweden Revives Retired SIGINT Ship as Underwater Infrastructure Research Asset

The Swedish Navy has made a dramatic pivot, bringing the retired HSwMS Orion out of mothballs to tackle one of the most pressing strategic challenges in the Baltic—underwater infrastructure security. Originally retired in November 2023 after nearly four decades as Sweden’s sole dedicated signals intelligence (SIGINT) vessel, the Orion is being reborn with a new mission: to serve as a testbed for the protection and surveillance of critical underwater infrastructure (CUI), a growing focal point am