| The Swedish Army | |
|---|---|
Coat of arms of The Swedish Army |
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| Active | 1521–Present |
| Country | Sweden |
| Type | Army |
| Part of | 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 | |
| Generalmajor | Berndt Grundevik |
The Swedish Army (Swedish: Armén) is one of the oldest standing armies in the world and a branch of the Swedish Armed Forces; it is in charge of land operations. General Sverker Göranson is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Army.
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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.
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).
Two regiments of infantry
One regiment and two battalions of cavalry:
One company of Chemical, Biological, Radiation, Nuclear defence-trained personnel
(Swedish: Pansartrupperna)
Three regiments of armoured/mechanized troops:
One regiment of artillery:
One regiment of anti-aircraft troops:
One regiment of engineering troops:
One regiment of signals:
One regiment of logistical troops:
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 | |
| 31. Luftburna bataljonen | Livgardet (LG) | Kungsängen | 31 Airborne (7. Modular) battalion (light). Trained with K 3 | |
| 31. Luftburna bataljonen | Livregementets husarer (K 3) | Karlsborg | 31 Airborne (7. Modular) battalion (light). Trained with LG | |
| 32. Underrättelsebataljonen | Livregementets husarer (K 3) | Karlsborg | 32 Reconnaissance (light) (inc. a company of paratroopers) | |
| 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.
The Territorial Defence Forces (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]
Until 2010 the Swedish army recruitment was based on conscription German style. All personnel were called up 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.
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