It consists of around 2,500 soldiers including officers, with manpower contributed from the seven participating Northern European countries, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Ireland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Additional support in the form of air, naval and special forces assets would be allocated based on the operational tasks the unit was expected to perform.

[3] The unit's coat of arms, registered in 2008, is a blue escutcheon displaying a silver lion with red tongue and claws, holding in his right forepaw a sword and in his left an olive branch, both of gold.

[5][failed verification] The lion is a national symbol common to the constituent countries of the Nordic Battlegroup except Ireland, and the sword and olive branch signify the ambition to impose peace - with or without the use of violence.

The Nordic Battlegroup's coat of arms was originally designed to incorporate heraldic elements and colours from all member nations, including "a lion that did not look Finnish, Norwegian, Estonian or Swedish.

[7] Since civilian women are often sexually assaulted in the war zones of the world, the commander did not consider the depiction of a penis appropriate on a uniform worn into battle.

According to the National Auditor, Jan Landahl, the Nordic Battlegroup also suffered from inadequate control over expenditures and reporting from the Government to the Riksdag was also unsatisfactory.