The Swedish army has 121 tanks (Leopard 2/Strv 122), roughly 1,540 APCs (Patria XA-360/203/180, RG-32 Scout, Bv410, Bv308/309), 450 IFVs (CV9040), 11,300 utility vehicles (ex.

The history of the Swedish Armed Forces dates back to the early sixteenth century, when they were founded by the newly crowned monarch Gustav I Vasa.

[12] After a period of enhanced readiness during World War I, the Swedish Armed Forces were subject to severe downsizing during the interwar years.

When World War II started, a large rearmament program was launched to once again guard Swedish neutrality, relying on mass male conscription as a source for personnel.

After World War II, Sweden considered building nuclear weapons to deter a Soviet invasion.

The option to continue development was abandoned in 1966, and Sweden subsequently signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968; the program was finally concluded in 1972.

During the Cold War, the wartime mass conscription system was kept in place to act as a deterrent to the Soviet Union, seen as the greatest military threat to Sweden.

[13] The Russo-Georgian War of 2008 and the events in Ukraine in 2014 gradually shifted Swedish debate back in favour of increased defence spending, as concerns grew over Russia's military buildup and intentions.

Following the United Kingdom leaving the European Union in 2020, the EU's mutual defence clause (Lisbon Treaty Article 42.7) ceased to apply to the UK.

The Swedish Armed Forces have four main tasks:[17] Sweden aims to have the option of remaining neutral in case of proximate war.

[23] Recent political decisions have strongly emphasized the capability to participate in international operations, to the point where this has become the main short-term goal of training and equipment acquisition.

In 2009 the Minister for Defence stated that in the future all of the armed forces must be capable of fully mobilizing within one week.

[27] In 2013, after Russian air exercises in close proximity to the Swedish border were widely reported, only six percent of Swedes expressed confidence in the ability of the nation to defend itself.

[29] Before the enactment of the 1974 Instrument of Government, the King of Sweden was the de jure commander in chief (Swedish: högste befälhavare).

Since then, King Carl XVI Gustaf is still considered to hold the honorary ranks of general and admiral à la suite, but the role is entirely ceremonial.

[31] It is led by the Chief of Defence (formerly the Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces) with a civilian director-general as his deputy, with functional directorates having different responsibilities (e.g. the Military Intelligence and Security Service).

[32][33] Some of the schools listed below answer to other units, listed under the various branches of the Armed Forces: The Nordic Battlegroup is a cooperative formation of the Swedish Armed Forces alongside mainly the other Nordic countries but also some of the Baltic countries as well as Ireland, tasked as one of the EU Battlegroups.

In mid-1995, with the national service system based on universal military training, the Swedish Army consisted of 15 maneuver brigades and, in addition, 100 battalions of various sorts (artillery, engineers, rangers, air defence, amphibious, security, surveillance etc.)

[39] The motivation behind reactivating conscription was the need for personnel, as volunteer numbers proved to be insufficient to maintain the armed forces.

[45] In 2008, professor Mats Alvesson of the University of Lund and Karl Ydén of the University of Göteborg claimed in an op-ed, based on Ydén's doctoral dissertation, that a large part of the officer corps of the Swedish Armed Forces was preoccupied with administrative tasks instead of training soldiers or partaking in international operations.

[47] During 2013 several Russian Air Force exercises over the Baltic Sea aimed at Swedish military targets have made the future of the Swedish Armed Forces a hot topic and several political parties now want to increase defence funding.