History

At the end of the 1950’s the Swedish Marine started the planning for successors to their ships in the Plejad class. After extensive studies and comparisons between Norwegian, English, and German torpedo boats, Sweden finally decided to buy drawings from the Lürssen shipyard for the Jaguar-type boat with a steel hull. These drawings made the base for the new Swedish torpedo boat project, called T121 Spica.

The rapid technological developments in arms, fire-control equipment, and machinery led to the Spica concept, as a logical step forward from the Plejad series of the 1950’s. Despite its design with a relatively small hull (42.5 m long and 7.1 m wide) and a displacement of 210 tons, the Spica carried weaponry well above that of the destroyers from World War II.

Once the project was established, construction took place at Götaverken AB as the builder of three ships in the series, T121 – T123 (the Spica, Sirius, and Capella). Another three ships, T124 – T126 (the Castor, Vega, and Virgo) were built by Karlskronavarvet. All ships were delivered during the years 1966–1968.

This type of ship made the advent of today’s surface-attack systems. It revolutionized the war-fare capabilities of torpedo boats through a wide range of novelties, and it meant a definite break-trough in applied electronics technology.

Today the Spica has her home port at the old base for torpedo boats at Gålö, together with the T26, T46, and T56. During summer time in the future, the T121 Spica will be anchored near the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, where she will be held open to welcome public visitors.