Among others, tracked vehicles, ATVs, transport vehicles, trucks and patrol boats are missing.
The Swedish Defense Forces are missing up to 70 military vehicles and 50 electricity generators, says a newspaper published in Malmö Sydsvenskan.
Among others, tracked vehicles, ATVs, transport vehicles, trucks and patrol boats are missing.
According to the newspaper, the equipment has disappeared from a warehouse located in the Köpingebro settlement in Skåne province.
The Swedish Defense Forces blames the disappearance of the equipment on the association of the Swedish voluntary national defense training association, Försvarsultikatarna, Ystad municipality association. It has received large amounts of military equipment since the 1990s.
When cuts have been made to the Swedish defense forces in recent decades, a large part of the equipment that previously belonged to the state has been donated to voluntary organizations. Organizations have been able to request equipment for their own activities and to be able to support municipalities in crisis situations.
Communications Manager of the Southern Military Region of the Defense Forces Jan Bohman says that he is furious about the incident. According to Sydsvenskan, the southern military region has been looking for the missing material for a year already.
– We are now working hard to build defense and strengthen society. We see what is happening on the other side of the sea. When I saw this, I saw red. What the hell is this, Bohman stated in an interview.
Association: There could not be so many vehicles in the warehouse
Ystad’s association, now known as Beredskapscenter Fredriksber, does not consider the defense forces’ calculations of the number of equipment lost to be credible.
– There could not be 70 vehicles in the warehouse. It’s just a fantasy, says a member of the organization’s board Björn Hårdstedt for Sydsvenskan.
Hårdstedt says that the allegedly missing power generators, on the other hand, have been scrapped because they were considered obsolete.
– I myself have spoken to the defense forces about it. An incredible amount of stuff was scrapped a few years ago.
According to Hårdstedt, the association had to hand over the keys to the warehouse to the defense forces last fall. He says that since then it hasn’t been clear who will make sure that things don’t disappear from the warehouse.
Hårdstedt states that the area has been insufficiently fenced for a long time, and that is why there have been break-ins several times.
– We have ideas about how the equipment could have disappeared. In some cases it has been scrapped, in some cases they may have been lost before.
The matter was reported in Finland earlier Ilta-Sanomat.