Swedish Army

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The Swedish Army
Armén vapen bra.svg
Coat of arms of The Swedish Army
Active 1521–Present (494 years)
Country Sweden Sweden
Type Army
Part of Coat of Arms of the Swedish Armed Forces Swedish Armed Forces
March Svenska arméns paradmarsch
Engagements Swedish War of Liberation
Danish Count's Feud
Great Russian War
Northern Seven Years' War
Livonian War
Russo-Swedish War (1590–1595)
War against Sigismund
Polish War
De la Gardie Campaign
Ingrian War
Kalmar War
Thirty Years' War
Torstenson War
First Bremian War
Second Northern War
Second Bremian War
Scanian War
Great Northern War
Hats' Russian War
Seven Years' War
Gustav III's Russian War
First Barbary War
War of the Fourth Coalition
Finnish War
War of the Sixth Coalition
Campaign against Norway
War in Afghanistan
2011 Libyan civil war
Commanders
Current
commander		 General Sverker Göranson

The Swedish Army (Swedish: Armén) is a branch of the Swedish Armed Forces; it is in charge of land operations. Attached to the Northern European Command, SJF, British Army.

History[edit]

Main article: Military history of Sweden

Organization[edit]

The peace-time organization of the Swedish Army is divided into a number of regiments for the different branches. The number of active regiments has been reduced since the end of the Cold War. The regiment forms training organisations that train the various battalions of the army and home guard.

The army is currently undergoing a transformation from conscription-based recruitment to a professional defence. This is part of a larger goal to abandon the mass army from the Cold War and develop an army better suited to modern maneuver warfare and at the same time retain a higher readiness. By 2014, the Swedish army will have around 50 000 soldiers in either full-time or part-time duty, with eight mechanized infantry battalions instantly available at any time and the full force of 71 battalions ready to be deployed within one week.

The regular army will consist of 8 mechanized maneuver battalions, 19 support battalions of different kinds including artillery battalions, anti-aircraft battalions, combat engineer battalions, rangers, logistics battalions, etc. and 4 reserve heavy armoured battalions and 40 territorial defence battalions. The battalion is the core unit but all units will be completely modular and can be arranged in combat teams from company to brigade level with different units depending on the task. There will be a total of 6 permanent staffs under the central command capable of handling large battlegroups, 4 regional staffs and 2 brigade staffs.

Leadership[edit]

Main article: Chief of Army (Sweden)

Until 1975 the Swedish monarch was the formal head of the army. In 1937, the staff agency "Chief of the Army" (Swedish: chefen för armén, CA) was created to lead the army in peace time. Following a larger reorganization of the Swedish Armed Forces in 1994, CA ceased to exist as an independent agency. Instead, the post Chief of Army Staff (Swedish: chefen för arméledningen) was created at the then newly instituted Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters (Swedish: Högkvarteret, HKV).

In 1998, the Swedish Armed Forces was again reorganized. Most of the duties of the Army Chief of Staff were transferred to the newly instituted post of "Inspector General of the Army" (Swedish: generalinspektören för armén). The post is similar to that of the "Inspector General of the Swedish Navy" (Swedish: generalinspektören för marinen) and the "Inspector General of the Swedish Air Force" (Swedish: generalinspektören för flygvapnet).

Chiefs of the Army[edit]

Maj. Gen. Anders Brännström is the current Chief of the Swedish Army.

Chiefs of Army Staff[edit]

Inspectors General[edit]

Chiefs of the Army[edit]

Order of Battle[edit]

Infantry[edit]

Swedish soldiers during a training exercise.

Two regiments of infantry

Cavalry[edit]

One regiment and two battalions of cavalry:

  • Note that the Swedish army's cavalry primarily trains light infantry, ranger units and military police.

CBRN-defence[edit]

One company of Chemical, Biological, Radiation, Nuclear defence-trained personnel

Armoured Corps[edit]

(Swedish: Pansartrupperna)

Three regiments of armoured/mechanized troops:

Artillery[edit]

One regiment of artillery:

Anti-Aircraft Artillery[edit]

One regiment of anti-aircraft troops:

Engineers[edit]

One regiment of engineering troops:

Signal Corps[edit]

One regiment of signals:

Logistic Corps[edit]

One regiment of logistical troops:

Rapid Reaction Force[edit]

The Swedish army will form a Rapid Reaction Organisation (Insatsorganisation in Swedish) in 2014 with the following units.[1]

Army Unit
War Units Training Unit Area Comments
1. Tekniska Bataljon Försvarsmaktens tekniska skola (FMTS) Halmstad 1 Technical battalion
2. Brigadstaben Skaraborgs regemente (P 4) Skövde 2 Brigade staff
3. Brigadstaben Norrbottens regemente (I 19) Boden 3 Brigade staff
Livbataljonen Livgardet (LG) Kungsängen Life battalion
13. Säkerhetsbataljon Livgardet (LG) Kungsängen 13 Security battalion
21. Ingenjörsbataljonen Göta ingenjörregemente (Ing 2) Eksjö 21 Engineering battalion
22. Ingenjörsbataljonen Göta ingenjörregemente (Ing 2) Eksjö 22 Engineering battalion
7. Lätta bataljonen Livgardet (LG) Kungsängen 7. (7. Maneuver) battalion (light). Trained with K 3
7. Lätta bataljonen Livregementets husarer (K 3) Karlsborg 7. (7. Maneuver) battalion (light). Trained with LG
32. Underrättelsebataljonen Livregementets husarer (K 3) Karlsborg 32 Reconnaissance (light) (inc. a company of Parachute Rangers)
41. Mekaniserade bataljonen Skaraborgs regemente (P 4) Skövde 41 Mechanised (1. modular) battalion (mechanised)
42. Mekaniserade bataljonen Skaraborgs regemente (P 4) Skövde 42. Mechanised (2. modular) battalion (mechanised)
61. Luftvärnsbataljonen Luftvärnsregementet (Lv 6) Halmstad 61 Air defence battalion
62. Luftvärnsbataljonen Luftvärnsregementet (Lv 6) Halmstad 62 Air defence battalion
71. Mekaniserade bataljonen Södra skånska regementet (P 7) Revingehed 71 Mechanised (5. modular) battalion (mechanised)
72. Mekaniserade bataljonen Södra skånska regementet (P 7) Revingehed 72 Mechanised (6. modular) battalion (mechanised)
91. Artilleribataljon Artilleriregementet (A 9) Boden 91 Artillery battalion
92. Artilleribataljon Artilleriregementet (A 9) Boden 92 Artillery battalion
191. Mekaniserade bataljonen Norrbottens regemente (I 19) Boden 191 Mechanised (3. modular) battalion (mechanised)
192. Mekaniserade bataljonen Norrbottens regemente (I 19) Boden 192 Mechanised (4. modular) battalion (mechanised)
193. Jägarbataljonen Norrbottens regemente (I 19) Arvidsjaur Army Rangers (light)
1. CBRN-kompaniet Totalförsvarets skyddscentrum Umeå CBRN
1. Transportkompaniet Trängregementet (TrängR) Skövde 1 Logistics company
1. Stridsvagnskompaniet Skaraborgs regemente (P 4) Skövde 1 Tank company
2. Stridsvagnskompaniet Skaraborgs regemente (P 4) Skövde 2 Tank company
3. Stridsvagnskompaniet Norrbottens regemente (I 19) Boden 3 Tank company
14. Militärpoliskompaniet Livgardet (LG) Kungsängen 14 Military police company
15. Militärpoliskompaniet Livgardet (LG) Kungsängen 15 Military police company

In addition, the force will include a number of personnel from the Territorial Defence Force.

Rapid Reaction Organisation Units

Equipment[edit]

Main article: Equipment of the Swedish Army

Territorial Defence Forces[edit]

The Territorial Defence Forces/Home Guard (Hemvärnet) consists of 40 battalions with a total of 22,000 men. Many of the soldiers have served abroad in the various missions of the regular army. All soldiers are former conscripts who volunteered for the Territorial Defence.[2]

Size[edit]

Between the introduction of universal conscription in 1902 till the early times of the Second World War, the Land Forces were usually maintained at a consistent strength of 120,000 men, with two-thirds of the force being conscripts for two years. From 1942 onwards, the Swedish Government embarked upon a massive and ambitious militarization programme in which conscription was very strictly enforced, compulsory service was extended for three years, and that combined with official propaganda about conscription being a part of social duty and defending Folkhemmet, led to an Army that was about 650,000 active duty soldiers in late 1945. Since the late winter of 1945 the size of the Army was slowly lessened as entire conscript units were gradually demobilized, and by late 1947 the size was around 170,000 and planned to be maintained at that.

However the rise in tensions between East and West, the threat from the Soviet Union in late 1949-early 1950, coinciding with the start of the Cold War, led to a return to the militaristic policy by the Government, and from then until 1976 was the size of the army maintained at 250,000 soldiers with a high of around 350,000 active duty soldiers during the tensest years from 1950 to 1966. The mandatory period of service during this period was 21 months for non-educated conscripts and 14 months for college educated ones, with 30 years in the reserve and 450 days of reserve service obligation. The rules were a bit slackly enforced, but dodging the draft was still punishable with a year of imprisonment and blocking of social welfare benefits. Only in 1976-77 was there a change in policy, the compulsory service period was reduced to twelve months, and from then on until 1983 was the size of the Army maintained at 150,000 active duty soldiers. From 1983 the size was again slightly increased at 200,000 soldiers, until 1989 and the end of the Cold War led to massive demobilization and restructuring in the Swedish Army. Every year after 1988, the Army discharged between 40,000 to 60,000 conscripts and recruited only 35,000, so that by 1995 the size was down to 80,000 soldiers. Around this time the service obligation was further reduced to nine months, reserve service was whittled away, and changes made in enforcement policy so that forceful enforcement became withdrawn as policy. By 2004 the size of the Swedish Army was down to 60,000 mostly conscripts, and in 2013, three years after the end of conscription, the size was at just 25,000 soldiers, though the Army plans to make it 55,000 wholly professional soldiers.

Recruitment[edit]

From the 17th century until 2010, Swedish army recruitment was based upon Prussian and Russian-style conscription. All personnel were drafted as conscripts for a year of national service, after which, the unit he/she trained with was put in the war reserve. Upon completion of conscript service with sufficient service marks, conscripts are eligible to apply for commissioned officer training, NCO/Warrant Officer or from 2007 stay in the Army as a professional private, mainly to be employed in the Nordic Battle Group. The army has employed soldiers for UN service on short time contracts since the 1950s for service abroad.

From the first of July 2010 the conscription-based system was abandoned and a professional army is being developed.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ forsvarsmakten.se (2011-08-12) Försvarsmaktens delårsrapport 2011 visited 27 augusti 2011
  2. ^ "Rikshemvärnschefens brev till hemvärnspersonalen, dec 2009" (PDF) (Press release). Hemvärnet. December 2009. Retrieved 23 March 2010. 

External links[edit]
Försvarsmakten vapen bra.svg
Armies (land forces) in Europe
Sovereign states
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