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 APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090016-9

Armed Forces

A. Defense establishment

Untested in combat since the Napoleonic Wars, Sweden has long followed a policy of non alliance with major powers in time of peace and of neutrality during war. To support this policy, the Swedes have maintained a relatively large military establishment consisting of a regular army of about 11,000 officers and noncommissioned officers plus an annual conscript input of 39,000 men; a 9,800-man navy (including the coast artillery and the naval helicopter service) with 35 principal combatant ships, 33 patrol ships, 37 mine warfare ships, and 83 other vessels; and a 12,600-man air force with 958 aircraft, of which 765 are jets. In peacetime the active component of the army and, to a lesser degree, that of the navy are training organizations; the air force, however, has tactical units organized and trained to perform their primary mission. The armed forces form a part of an overall defense system that includes other agencies, such as those concerned with civil defense, economic defense, and psychological defense. This total defense system is directed by the cabinet as a whole. (S)

In keeping with the armed forces' sole mission of national defense, a defensive strategy has evolved based upon the exploitation of Sweden's natural barriers -- the sparsely populated rugged terrain of the border areas and the hazardous shallow waters of an extensive coastline. Armed forces training emphasizes fast mobilization and deployment to strategic areas of the country. (S)

Sweden has no nuclear weapons, and its military leaders no longer call for the development of nuclear weapons as a deterrent to a major attack because Sweden ratified the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1970. Emphasis is placed on civil defense, including the construction of numerous underground shelters. Faced with attack by a major force employing modern methods of warfare, a delaying action is the best that could be expected from the Swedish armed forces. Guerrilla activities could be carried on for some time against a major power. (S)

1. Military history (C)

Although Sweden remained neutral throughout World War II, upon the outbreak of the war the country began to alert and strengthen its armed forces. Swedish volunteers participated in the Finnish Winter War and fought against the Soviet Union in 1939-40. After the German invasion of Denmark and Norway in 1940, Sweden ordered full mobilization of its armed forces and initiated a 5-year plan for improving national defense. German pressure, coupled with pro-German sentiments of influential Swedes, induced the government to permit transit across Sweden of German troops to and from Norway. One division of German troops was also allowed transit from Norway to Finland.

In 1943, after the armed forces had been fully mobilized, Sweden cancelled all German transit rights. At the end of the war, the armed forces were reduced to peacetime status but at a level above the prewar period. In 1948 and 1949 Sweden sought to achieve a greater degree of security through a Scandinavian alliance, but but Norway and Denmark preferred to enter the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Sweden thereupon reaffirmed

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090016-9