The Swedish Army (Swedish: Svenska Armén) is the land force of the Swedish Armed Forces of the Kingdom of Sweden. Beginning with its service in 1521, the Swedish Army has been active for more than 500 years.
History
Svea Life Guards dates back to the year 1521, when the men of Dalarna chose 16 young able men as body guards for the insurgent nobleman Gustav Vasa in the war against the Union of Kalmar, thus making the present-day Life Guards one of the world's oldest regiments still on active duty.
In 1901, Sweden introduced conscription. The conscription system was abolished in 2010 but reinstated in 2017.
Organisation
The peace-time organisation 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 in the late 1980s. However the Swedish Army has begun to expand once again, due to an increasing threat from the east with a resurgent Russian Federation and its attack on neighboring Ukraine in 2014 / 2022. Thus resulting in longtime neutral Sweden to become a full-fledged member of the 75-year-old Western / Central European and North America democratic and military alliance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The regiment forms training organisations that train the various battalions of the army and home guard.
The Swedish Armed Forces recently underwent a transformation from conscription-based recruitment to a professional defence organisation increasing to an all-volunteer force. This is part of a larger goal to abandon the mass army from the Cold War era and develop an army better suited to modern maneuver warfare and at the same time retain a higher readiness. Since 2014, the Swedish Army has had around 50,000 soldiers in either full-time or part-time duty, with eight mechanised infantry battalions instantly available at any time and the full force of 71 battalions ready to be deployed within one week. The regular army consists of 8 mechanised maneuver battalions, 19 support battalions of different kinds including artillery battalions, anti-aircraft battalions, combat engineer battalions, rangers, logistics battalions and 4 reserve heavy armoured battalions and 40 territorial defence battalions. The battalion is the core unit but all units are completely modular and can be arranged in combat teams from company to brigade level with different units depending on the task. There are a total of 6 permanent staffs under the central command capable of handling large battlegroups, 4 regional staffs, 3 brigade staffs and 1 divisional staff.
Leadership
Until 1937 the King was the formal Head of the Army, and until 1974 of the Armed Forces at large. In 1937, the Chief of the Army position and headquarters staff (Swedish: Chefen för armén, CA) was created to lead the Army in peacetime. Following a larger reorganisation of the Swedish Armed Forces in 1994, CA ceased to exist as an independent agency, and all of the Armed Forces was centralised under the Supreme Commander (ÖB). Instead, the post Chief of Army Staff (Swedish: Chefen för arméledningen) was created at the then newly instituted Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters (HKV).
In 1998, the Swedish Armed Forces was yet again reorganised. Most of the duties of the Chief of Army 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), later renamed to "Inspector of the Army" (Swedish: Arméinspektören). In 2014, the Chief of Army (Swedish: Arméchefen, AC) position was reinstated.
Regiments
Swedish Army regiments are tasked with training conscripts for the operational battalions of the army's rapid reaction organisation. The Gotland Regiment is the only regiment that also trains Home Guard troops. The currently active regiments and their main peacetime subordinate units are:
Life Guards (LG), in Stockholm
Life Guards Battalion
Guards Battalion trains conscripts for the 1st Infantry Brigade
1st Motorized Infantry Battalion
2× Motorized infantry battalions to be formed by 2030
1st Military Police Battalion
13th Security Battalion
Armed Forces Military Police Unit (FM MPE)
Swedish Armed Forces Music Corps (FöMus)
Armed Forces International Centre (Swedint)
Dalarna Regiment (I 13), in Falun
2× Infantry battalions, in Falun
Norrbotten Regiment (I 19), in Boden
Norrbotten Armoured Battalion (Pbat / I 19) trains the troops of the 191st and 192nd mechanized battalions, and 19th brigade reconnaissance company
Armed Forces Winter Unit (FMVE), in Boden and Arvidsjaur
Västernorrland Regiment (I 21), in Sollefteå
2× Infantry battalions, in Sollefteå
Jämtland Ranger Corps (JFK), in Östersund
Life Regiment Hussars (K 3), in Karlsborg
Training companies, train the troops of the 31st Ranger Battalion and 32nd Intelligence Battalion
Armed Forces Survival School
Norrland Dragoon Regiment (K 4), in Arvidsjaur
Training companies, trains the troops of the 41st Arctic Ranger Battalion, in Arvidsjaur and 42nd Arctic Ranger Battalion (forming), in Arvidsjaur
Skaraborg Regiment (P 4), in Skövde
Training unit (KFE), trains the troops of the 41st and 42nd mechanized battalions, 1st heavy transport company, and 4th brigade reconnaissance company, headquarters of the 1st Divisional Staff
South Scanian Regiment (P 7), in Revingehed
Training unit (KFE), trains the troops of the 71st and 72nd Light mechanized Battalion
Gotland Regiment (P 18), in Visby
Gotlandsgruppen (GLG), trains and supports the Home Guard on Gotland
Gotland Battalion (32nd Home Guard Battalion), in Visby
Boden Artillery Regiment (A 8) in Boden
Artillery Battalion, trains the troops of the 81st and 82nd artillery battalions
Artillery Combat School
Bergslagen Artillery Regiment (A 9) in Kristinehamn
Artillery Battalion, trains the troops of the 91st and 92nd artillery battalions
Air Defence Regiment (Lv 6), in Halmstad
Air Defence Battalion, trains the troops of the 61st and 62nd air defence battalions
Göta Engineer Regiment (Ing 2), in Eksjö
Engineer Battalion, trains the troops of the 21st and 22nd engineer battalions
Field Works School
Göta Logistic Regiment (T 2), in Skövde
Training unit, training the troops of the 1st and 2nd logistic battalions
Swedish Army regimental organization graphic
Operational formations
The Swedish Army distinguishes an administrative from an operational structure. The administrative structure includes the peacetime depot units (depåförband), which are responsible for the training, equipment and combat readiness of the forces. Depot units are the army regiments, the air force flotillas, the naval flotillas or the armed forces centers. The depot units generate wartime units (krigsförband), which are transferred to their respective wartime formations, so normally the Swedish army regiments are composed of administrative and training companies during peacetime and their battalions are only formed for exercises and during wartime. The operational units in their entirety are known as the operational organisation of the armed forces (Försvarsmaktens Insatsorganisation (FM IO or just IO, followed by the year it has been introduced in, as IO 2018 or just IO 18 for example) in Swedish). The operational organisation of the army plans for the training regiments to form two combat brigades (2nd and 3rd Brigades) and a number of independent combat battalions within a few days. This plan, however, was considered by the Supreme Commander to be impossible due to the economic situation at the time.
In 2013, the Armed Forces issued a statement saying that the reorganisation would only suffice for a reasonable defence of Swedish territory for one week. The force was to include the following units:
As of 2022 the 1st Division was reintroduced as an operational unit. The Division currently contains four brigades; The Norbotten Brigade (Norbottensbrigaden NMekB 19), The South Scanian Brigade (Södra Skånska Brigaden MekB 7, The Life Guards Brigade (Livgardesbrigaden IB 1) and The Skaraborg Brigade (Skaraborgsbrigaden MekB 4)
As of 2024 the Army's units of the Operational Organisation are: