Together with its sister ship Sundsvall, they took part in the United Nations operation off the coast of Lebanon following the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

[4] In June 2017 Saab signed a 1.249BSEK contract for life extension modification and upgrading of the Swedish Navy's Gävle and Sundsvall.

The upgrade included a new torpedo guidance system, Bofors 57 mm Mk3B gun, variable depth sonar (VDS), new sensors, all integrated Combat Management System, integrated IFF-system, AMB 3D radar similar to the one in use on the Visby-class corvettes.

[7][8] "It is a do over and modernisation of everything on board: She will have the same hull, but more or less all the systems on the inside are new", said Johan Edelsvärd, Project Manager for the Mid-Life Upgrade of HSwMS Gävle at FMV (Swedish Defence Materiel Administration).

On 13 May 2022, Gävle took part in a PASSEX training with the Finnish and the American navies in the northern Baltic Sea.