These are some of the assessments that the Armed Forces make in the military councils that are handed over to the government today.
There is broad political consensus that defense must grow to two percent of GDP. The military councils describe how that rearmament should go about and what adaptations of the Swedish defense that NATO membership requires.
“It is a very serious security policy situation,” says ÖB Micael Bydén.
– We cannot rule out even more serious developments.
A public appendix to the military councils states that the government’s planning framework can be reached in 2026. Last spring, the Armed Forces estimated that it would take until 2028 before rearmament reached two percent of GDP.
However, the fact that the two percent target is now deemed to be able to be reached more quickly is not primarily due to being able to upgrade faster. The reason is, among other things, a rapidly accelerating price trend for defense equipment.
The military councils mention several examples of investments that need to be made in the short term due to NATO membership.
It is, among other things, about reinforcements of the air and robot defence.
The advice also states that Sweden should early offer combat aircraft to NATO’s incident preparedness in the air, ships to NATO’s standing naval forces and troops and material to NATO’s reinforced presence along the defense alliance’s eastern border.
It also states that “participation in NATO’s rapid response unit should be prioritized” and that “Sweden should establish itself as a base area for allied ground, air and naval forces.
The Swedish Armed Forces believe that Sweden needs to take a special regional responsibility for the defense of northern Europe.
The armed forces also prescribe that the Nordic countries belong to the same operational area and are led by the same command structure.
The advice also states that training of conscripts should be increased to 9,000 annually in 2030 and to 10,000 from 2035. This means that the number of conscripts in the war organization grows from 24,000 in 2025 to 50,000 in 2035.