Swedish defense doctrine on the eve of a revolution
(B2) As Sweden prepares to take over the EU Presidency, its military doctrine is changing. A kind of revolution in a way (in the astronomical sense of the term). Since last week the Swedish Parliament abolished conscription, compulsory military service. Or rather, " conscription is put on hold and recruitment will be on a voluntary basis. Men and women will be recruited under the same conditions". This vote was won by a few votes (153 for, 150 against) but which marks a strategic transformation. By 2014, national defense will be ensured by a professional army of 50.000 men, "operational within a few hours to a week».
Even if the objective is not stated so clearly, this transformation is carried out with the objective of Sweden's eventual membership of NATO. And the evolution of its defense doctrine.
"Sweden is militarily non-aligned, ie it is not part of any military alliance. But it's not enough to describe a security policy by saying what it is not.." defined the Minister of Defense, Sten Tolgfors in a framework speech (read in Swedish).
Sweden is a country that builds its security together with its Nordic neighbors and the EU. "We cannot see a situation where a military conflict in our immediate neighborhood would only affect one of the countries. Sweden will not remain passive, if a neighboring country in the Nordic or EU countries are affected by a crisis or attack. And NWe assume that they would not remain passive if Sweden suffered. We must therefore prepare ourselves, to receive and provide support, which can also be military. " "Today we have only a third of the necessary forces, about 11.500 men, ready for action within a year. It's too little and too late."
The Nordic countries are in the same part of the world but have different perspectives.
«Sweden has a strategic policy on the entire Baltic. Finland has a territorial vision of a land border. Denmark focuses on international efforts. Norway focuses on the northern regions and the Barents Sea. These differences have an impact on skills. Sweden has an air force nearly twice as large as Norway, Denmark and Finland. We have corvettes and submarines, like Finland and (to a lesser extent) Denmark (which has no submarines). We have a smaller army than Finland, but our troops have very high availability and quality. Sweden is currently negotiating with NATO, Norway and Finland for an ASDE cooperation agreement (air situation data exchange Or exchange of air situation data). The objective is to have Nordic airspace surveillance cooperation, which could also include the Baltic States.»
The new defense policy involves several paradigm shifts.
“Defence's main task is to provide accessible and usable power through units, with trained and experienced soldiers. Its main function is not to provide a basic training course of conscripts who are only available war placed a couple of years of organizational effort. (...) Defense is about taking action to protect the interests of Sweden and Swedes in and outside Sweden.»
(NGV)
