Experts assessed Sweden’s military potential upon joining NATO

The smooth entry of the Swedes into the North Atlantic Alliance has been going on for more than 30 years

The Turkish parliament approved Sweden’s application to join NATO by a majority vote. Now this decision must be approved by Erdogan within two weeks – which he will most likely do. Thus, only one obstacle will remain on the Swedes’ path to NATO – the position of Hungary and its Prime Minister Orban. But this line will probably soon fall under US pressure, and Sweden will join the Alliance after Finland. At the same time, according to experts, the notorious “Swedish neutrality” is a conditional concept: Stockholm has long been in NATO’s orbit.

Assessing the decision of the Turkish parliament, which met the Swedes halfway, despite numerous scandals with the burning of the Koran, political scientist and orientalist Vladimir Avatkov wrote in his channel: “The Turks did approve Sweden’s application to join NATO. Well. The game of integrity lasted a long time, but it ended. Ankara struggled for a long time, but gave in.”

As MK was reminded by the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST), several factors should be taken into account when assessing Sweden’s military potential. Firstly, starting in the 90s, the armed forces of the Scandinavian country were greatly reduced. Secondly, at the same time, active rapprochement between Sweden and the NATO bloc began. This concerns not only participation in NATO programs, but also in the country’s course towards unification of the main weapons systems.

In 1994, the Partnership for Peace program, joint with NATO, was launched. Since 1997, Sweden has been an associate member of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. There are already joint training centers with NATO on the territory of the country.

In 1992-1995, Swedish contingents participated in the UNPROFOR peacekeeping operation in Yugoslavia. Since 1999, the Swedish military has been part of the KFOR forces in Kosovo. From 2002 to 2021, Sweden participated in the war in Afghanistan.

Since the start of the SVO in February 2022, Sweden has begun supplying weapons to Ukraine, and in terms of volumes it has even outstripped some NATO countries. In particular, the Swedish Ministry of Defense transferred ten tanks to Ukraine, analogues of the German Leopard 2.

How combat-ready is the Swedish army? In 2010-2017, it conducted an experiment to abolish universal conscription. However, due to problems with recruitment, this experiment had to be stopped. In 2017, the conscription system was returned, and women are also subject to conscription.

The Swedish Armed Forces consist of the Army, Air Force and Navy. The number of ground forces is about 7 thousand people. The Navy includes a submarine fleet (3 Gotland class submarines, a Södermanland class submarine); underwater rescue forces; special forces squad; radio intelligence ship; a flotilla of warships and several divisions of corvettes. There is also a division of combat swimmers and amphibious forces.

The Swedish Air Force has a strength of 2,700 people. The Air Force is armed with 165 combat and 102 auxiliary aircraft, 54 helicopters. The average flight time of pilots is 100-150 hours per year.

The conclusion that experts draw is that Sweden’s formal entry into NATO will change little in the nature of relations between the Alliance and Stockholm. Once neutral Sweden will continue to follow the military policies of the United States and NATO.