During the interwar period, the ship underwent several modernizations and was one of the most powerful vessels in the fleet during the Second World War.

The hull was made of nitrated steel in overlapping plates with an armored belt at the waterline and on the citadel.

Unlike her sister ship HSwMS Sverige, Gustaf V was not designed as a flagship but instead received two bunks for 22 cadets and engineers.

The main artillery on Gustaf V consisted of four 28 cm M/12 guns placed in two double turrets, one forward and one aft.

With HSwMS Sverige already being launched the shipyard had access to the original drawings, which meant that the construction work started well.

[6] In addition to this appropriation, a sum of SEK 1,293,295 was received, which was awarded by an arbitration panel after it the shipyard requested extra money due to increased costs from procurement difficulties.

After the First World War, Sweden's relationship with the her newly independent neighbors, Finland and the three Baltic States, had become increasingly busier, and in order to show the Swedish Government's goodwill during the early 1920s several official exercises were conducted in these countries.

On 5 July 1924, Gustaf V joined together with HSwMS Drottning Victoria and four minelayers on a transit to Tallinn, and then together with the entire Swedish Coastal Fleet, a total of 36 ships, to Helsinki.

In the summer of 1926, Gustaf V and HSwMS Sverige visited Copenhagen in connection with exercises in the southern Baltic[citation needed].

The mast height was reduced, the ventilation system improved, and the old torpedo rooms were converted to artillery control centers.

During a flight landing in the dark, an aircraft collided with Gustaf V's combat mast, killing two people from the airplane's crew.

[14] Gustaf V then went to the mainland, and at Hårsfjärden the commanding admiral and his staff moved to HSwMS Sverige, which then served as flagship during the remainder of the war.

When HSwMS Sverige was taken out of active service with the Coastal Fleet in 1947, Gustaf V took over the role of the Swedish flagship once again.

She was supposed to be released to Karlskrona, however she lay at Berga Naval Base, south of Stockholm through the year 1967.