While having a history of civil vessel construction, Kockums' most renowned activity is the fabrication of military corvettes and submarines.

Kockums worked with Northrop Grumman and Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) to offer a Visby-class corvette derivative in the American Focused Mission Vessel Study, a precursor to the Littoral Combat Ship program.

Thanks to this he was able to purchase a large part of land 1838 south of Malmö, and between 1840 and 1841 he erected a forge and a mechanical workshop which initially primarily manufactured farming equipment, stoves, portable engines, incubators, spittoons, and various other castings.

Kockums Mekaniska Verkstad AB shifted focus to primarily constructing ships, railway carriages, and bridges.

Namely the coastal battleships Tapperheten and Manligheten, the destroyers Wale, Munin, Vidar, Ragnar, as well as the steam ferry Malmö.

Following that the shipyard had continued success, delivering the coastal battleships Gustav V, the destroyers Ehrensköld and Klas Horn, the icebreaker Ymer, some 25 submarines, and several motor torpedo boats.

[citation needed] As a result of the Swedish shipyard crisis [sv] which heavily affected the industry during 1969–1985, due to heavy competition from shipyards in the Far East, the 1973 oil crisis and the ensuing recession, Kockums was placed under the control of the Swedish state through the state-owned company Svenska Varv and its successor company Celsius AB [sv] from 1979 until 1999.

Having implemented a highly advanced variety of the Stirling engine for low noise submarine propulsion, Kockums was considered to have strategic value for the Swedish Navy.

In 1989, Kockums acquired Karlskronavarvet [sv], the operator of the Karlskrona shipyards, mainly for its then-pioneering fibreglass technology.

As several technical innovations to be implemented in the A26 were kept in classified status at the FMV, ThyssenKrupp argued that the implied costs were too difficult to predict.

[5] When Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014, Sweden's defence interests in the future of Kockums came under closer scrutiny.

ThyssenKrupp demanded to keep its monopoly position in the A26 deal, which Saab refused to accept, causing the negotiations to fail.

[9] Australia: In November 2014 Saab formally made a bid in SEA 1000, the Royal Australian Navy's replacement program for the six Collins-class submarines still in service.

[12][13][14] Australia subsequently selected Naval Group (formerly DCNS) France and their Shortfin Barracuda submarines to replace the Australian Collins class, though this deal was later rescinded.