The Defense Materiel Administration has signed a contract enabling the Armed Forces to purchase thousands of new sabers for a total of more than SEK 50 million, reports P4 Jönköping.
– The sabers we have today are quite old. It’s downright scrap in many cases, says Hans Augustin, ceremony officer at the Lifeguard, to P4.
The sabers are carried, among other things, by the Lifeguard soldiers who can be seen outside Stockholm Palace. When they are to be used in parades or ceremonies in other parts of the country, they have to be transported there, a transport that the defense now wants to avoid, which is why the sabers should be more.
In the autumn, 1,300 new sabers will be bought in, which is twice as many as there are estimated to be today. According to the contract, an additional 2,500 sabers can be bought in over the next five years.
– If the system works in the future, we will not have to buy new sabers for 100 years to come, says Hans Augustin.