Swedish Armed Forces situation.

[SlyDog]

Feanor: The army have been reduced during the last 20 years!!...piece by piece. Swedish army have on the other hand very updated hardware today. Situation during the end of 1970s was different. A lot of old equipment.

 

[Feanor]

So why was this reduction occuring in the first place? Do the Swedish politicians feel that they're safe enough to keep cutting the military budget to get more money for other programs?

 

[SlyDog]

Yeah, I guess so. But more: A lot of money have been spent on R & D to, in a very strange way. Several R&D program - and finally ending i a situation there no actual production can be done, because they run out of money.

If they had focused at fewer project, the outcome would be bigger, I think.

I´m think that sweden try to pay debts in a high rate also.

 

[Dr Freud]

I´m think that sweden try to pay debts in a high rate also.

Paying off the national debt is the right thing to do.

 

[rattmuff]

I do find it funny SAF ones was counted in brigades. Now it's battalions. Soon companies? It's been leaked in the swedish media a second suggestion on how the next cut will be done. To half the army, everything the army has, including the 24 battalion mobilisation organization.
A 8000 soldier strong "combat ready" Swedish Army.

 

[SlyDog]

Dr Freud: Yes, but it seems like things have gone to far now - when it comes to down cutting the Swedish Defence. And It should take many years and not be cheap to expand the defence again. Politicians apparently want to save needle money - with a lot of bad consequences.

'Sweden can no longer defend itself'

Armed Forces Supreme Commander Håkan Syrén fears that proposed cuts to the military will diminish its capacity to defend Sweden's borders.

In a proposal featuring an array of downsizing measures submitted by Syrén to the government on Thursday, military operations in Arvidsjaur in northern Sweden will disappear with the dissolution of the city’s Arctic Ranger battalion. A number of other training units and naval companies are to be shut down as well.

The move comes in response to government pressure to hold down defence spending.

Syrén warned that the military won’t be able to deliver what the government is demanding.

“The Armed Forces are being forced to lower their ambitions when it comes to their ability to repel extensive military operations which threaten Sweden,” said Syrén in a statement.

According to Syrén, Sweden won’t have the protection required if current security conditions deteriorate.

In addition to the training units which the Supreme Commander wants to shut down in Kiruna, Östersund, Gävle, Strängnäs, Eksjö, Skredsvik, Halmstad, Karlskrona and Berga, Syrén has also proposed a number of additional downsizing measures.

The tank training units in Boden and Revinge are to be discontinued, as will the naval companies in Härnösand, Gothenburg, Karlskrona, Malmö and Visby.

The Arvidsjaur ranger battalion’s operations will most likely be moved to the K3 Regiment in Karlsborg, located in the south of Sweden on the shores of Lake Vättern, according to Bjarne Hald, a representative from the Association of Military Officers trade union stationed with the Arvidsjaur battalion.

“They’re thinking of shuttering the army’s ranger battalion and the airborne battalion which trains at K3,” Hald said to the TT news agency.

“They then plan on creating an entirely new concept for the rangers, in which a part of the training will take place at Karlsborg.”

“Now we’re going to request the documents, including the appendices, from the Armed Forces, which show how they calculated when it comes to the downsizing,” said Jerry Johansson, a municipal commissioner from Arvidsjaur.

“It’s not possible to get a more cost effective training than that which is carried out by the ranger battalion here,” he said.

Around 150 people work at the Arvidsjaur ranger battalion, 80 of whom are officers.

Rikard Skiöld, chair of the officers’ trade union at the ranger battalion is extremely critical of Syrén’s proposal, claiming that Armed Forces’ planning is driven by special interests and personal relationships.

“They are watching out for the interests of those with ties to certain branches of the army and parts of the organization with which they have personal ties,” said Skiöld.

The Supreme Commander’s proposal, however, does not single out the air wing which ought to be closed down, according to Kent Löving, a spokesperson at the F17 Air Wing in Kallinge in southern Sweden.
A decision regarding the air wing won’t be made before September 2008.

Regardless of Syrén’s proposals, it is the Riksdag which has the final say on which bases are closed down, the shape of the Armed Forces, and the overall defence budget.

The Commander's proposal will serve as part of the basis for Defence Minister Sten Tolgfors’s legislative proposal on the military’s future direction and financing, to be submitted later in the year.

In addition to the Supreme Commander’s proposal, the thoughts of the government’s Defence Commission on the issue are due in June. The government’s so called implementation group has also laid out which equipment projects will be prioritized and which are at risk for being shut down.

http://www.thelocal.se/11782/20080515/

 

[rattmuff]

I don't know, I do find it "funny" somehow.

North Korea declares Sweden an enemy
The Communist North Korean government has declared Sweden their enemy and a US war puppet.

According to information from the Swedish Armed Forces, this brusque message was first conveyed in a North Korean radio broadcast, then printed as an official document and distributed to the United Nations.
http://www.thelocal.se/13794/20080819/

Also:

Sweden puts Russian military ties on ice
Sweden said on Monday it was freezing its military ties with Moscow as a result of Russia's incursion into Georgia.
http://www.thelocal.se/13782/20080819/

The situation is strange.
First the announcement to cut the military in half (again).
Then the "FRA-law" which allows the National Defence Radio Establishment in Sweden to conduct SIGINT(signals intelligence) in cables and via a (almost) fully automated system to "fish military and security threats against swedish interests". The Russians have expressed clearly they hate the law. This makes the tension build up. (duh)
Then came a "new war" in the Caucasus-region involving some Russian aggression. Apparently everybody involved in swedish security politics was surprised (MUST wasn't, but the politicians didn't listen a few months ago :dunce) and now wants to re-investigate the swedish standpoint in the world.

MUST = Swedens "military intelligence agency", I don't know the official english name. IIRC, a few months ago they came with a rather "worrying" investigation that Russia might act aggressive against its smaller neighbours to achieve a better strategic position. It was widely neglected.

IMHO a tension is starting to grow. Sure there isn't a threat directly against Sweden, but the Baltics and North pole is starting to get strategic points where military assets could collide when all sides wants protect the interests, then a poor guy makes a fatal mistake and . . .

 

[Wall83]

I dont think that Sweden needs the Cold war sized armed force they did in 1960-1990. However the world can change very fast and the ground stones for a good defence are still needed.
And the thought about closing down modern regiments with eqiupment like the Gripen multirole fighter and Leopard 2 MBT is just crazy. And why scrap everything, tanks can be saved for many years. Just look at the russians T-72 and T-80, they must be 15-25 years old and they still works fine.