It was created as a stealth ship, and underwent a decade long testing phase before it entered service with the Swedish Navy.

It was intended to be radar silent until it moves within 30 kilometres (19 mi) of an enemy vessel, resulting in designer John Nilsson saying of it, "Naval officers fall in love with [this] ship.

[2] The ship underwent a further eight years of tests by the Swedish Defence Procurement Agency, before being delivered to the Navy in late 2012.

[1] In October 2014, Visby was amongst the Swedish vessels patrolling in an exercise for finding the source of "foreign underwater activity" which was rumoured to be a Russian submarine, identified by distress call.

[5][6] The announcement comes after a recent series of suspected sabotages against underwater cables and other installations in the Baltic Sea area.