  We review recent UV observations of core-collapse supernovae (SNe) with the
Swift Ultra-violet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) during its first two years.
Rest-frame UV photometry is useful for differentiating SN types by exploiting
the UV-optical spectral shape and more subtle UV features. This is useful for
the real-time classification of local and high-redshift SNe using only
photometry. Two remarkable SNe Ib/c were observed with UVOT -- SN2006jc was a
UV bright SN Ib. Swift observations of GRB060218/SN2006aj began shortly after
the explosion and show a UV-bright peak followed by a UV-faint SN bump. UV
observations are also useful for constraining the temperature and ionization
structure of SNe IIP. Rest-frame UV observations of all types are important for
understanding the extinction, temperature, and bolometric luminosity of SNe and
to interpret the observations of high redshift SNe observed at optical
wavelengths.
