Swedish Armed Forces

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Flag of SwedenFlag of Sweden Swedish Armed Forces
Försvarsmakten
Swedish Armed Forces coat of arms
guide
Commander in Chief : Micael Bydén
Defense Minister: Peter Hultqvist
Headquarters: Stockholm
Military strength
Active soldiers: 33,900 (2009)
Conscription: suspended in 2010, reintroduced in 2017
Resilient population: approx. 4 million (men and women, ages 16–49; 2010) .
Eligibility for military service: 18th
household
Military budget: 48.451 billion SEK (~ 5.22 billion €) (2015)
Share of gross domestic product : 1.24%
history

The Swedish Armed Forces ( Swedish Försvarsmakten ) consist of the four armed forces

organization

Use in Afghanistan

The Swedish Army is organized as an administrative authority. As such, it reports directly to the Swedish government and not, as in many other countries, to the defense minister . The head of the authority, a general with the title överbefälhavaren (ÖB, German Commander-in-Chief ), is in command both in times of peace and in times of war . This position has been held by General Micael Bydén since October 1, 2015 . As a result, the king - unusual for a European monarchy - has no longer been in command of the armed forces since 1975. Despite this change, the monarch is still officially the highest officer and wears a general or admiral's uniform on official occasions.

With the end of the Cold War , conscription for men was suspended in 2010. In 1975 45,000 conscripts were drafted, in 2003 there were only 15,000. Only soldiers who had voluntarily served longer were used for missions abroad.

In times of crisis, the government can reintroduce general conscription by resolution , for reasons of equality now also for women.

Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist declared in September 2016 that conscription will be reintroduced in 2018, and then also apply to women. He hopes the reintroduction will result in “more stable, robust and functional recruitment”.

On March 2, 2017, the Swedish government presented a draft law to parliament to reintroduce compulsory military service due to the changed threat situation and to start sampling for the 1999 and 2000 cohorts on July 1, 2017. The draft comprises 13,000 conscripts. 4,000 conscripts per year of birth should be used for military service, which corresponds to around 4% of a year. The background to this is fears of an increasing threat from Russia since the annexation of Crimea , the war in Ukraine and Russian military exercises on the border with the Baltic States.

The Swedish Home Guard includes 2012 22.000 soldiers (42,000 in 2001), the 40 Infantry - battalions are organized.

Since 1994, the country has been participating in the Partnership for Peace (PfP) initiative .

In the wake of the Ukraine crisis in 2014 , the Swedish Reinfeldt government announced that it wanted to increase the defense budget of the Swedish armed forces by 2024 in order to purchase additional warplanes and submarines. The budget for 2015 is to be increased significantly. In April 2015, the government and three of the four parties in the Alliance for Sweden agreed to increase the budget for the years 2016-2020 by 10.2 billion kroner.

Crew numbers and equipment

Swedish soldiers of the arctic units

Crew numbers

  • Army: 19,100
  • Navy: 7,100
  • Air Force: 7,700

In 2009 the proportion of women in the armed forces was 5%.

equipment

See also

Web links

Commons : Swedish Armed Forces  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
  • Försvarsmakten - official homepage of the Swedish Army (Swedish, English)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Announcement , nzz.ch, March 2, 2017, accessed on March 2, 2017
  2. ↑ a b cia.gov
  3. ↑ Beslutad utgiftsram, anslag och verksamhet för utgiftsområde 6: Försvar och samhällets krisberedskap . In: regeringen.se . Archived from the original on February 9, 2015. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 26, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.regeringen.se
  4. ↑ Economic data of Sweden ekonomifakta.se (Swedish); Retrieved December 26, 2015
  5. ↑ Sweden abolishes conscription. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . July 1, 2010, accessed January 19, 2012 .
  6. ↑ Voluntary self-defense. Sweden abolishes conscription . n-tv.de, July 1, 2010
  7. ↑ Sweden will reintroduce conscription in 2018 . In: Welt N24, September 29, 2016, accessed September 30, 2016
  8. ↑ Sweden wants to reintroduce conscription , SRF, March 2, 2017
  9. ↑ Government resolution to activate conscription. (PDF) Swedish Ministry of Defense (Swedish); Retrieved March 3, 2017.
  10. ↑ Conscription is reintroduced. In: Aftonbladet (Swedish); Retrieved March 3, 2017.
  11. ↑ Conscription: Young Swedes have to go back to the military . In: Deutschlandrundfunk , March 2, 2017.
  12. ↑ Sweden returns draft amid security worries and soldier shortage . In: Reuters , March 2, 2017.
  13. ^ Samuel Osborne: Sweden brings back military conscription in face of growing Russia threat . In: The Independent , March 2, 2017.
  14. ↑ Sweden brings back military conscription amid Baltic tensions . BBC , March 2, 2017.
  15. ↑ Letter from the head of Hemvärnet (PDF) hemvarnet.se (Swedish)
  16. ↑ Sweden wants to increase the armaments budget . ( Memento from April 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Tagesschau.de, April 22, 2014; accessed on April 22, 2014: "The Swedish government announced, with reference to a Russian threat, that it would increase the armaments budget by 2024 in order to acquire more combat aircraft and submarines."
  17. ↑ Agreement of the parties on defense resolution (Swedish), accessed December 26, 2015