Sweden - Armed Forces Headquarters

The Armed Forces, headed by the Supreme Commander (SC), are accountable to the Swedish Parliament and Government. The Director General (DG) is deputy head of the authority. Armed Forces central command is based at Headquarters. The Armed Forces Headquarters is the highest level of command in the Armed Forces. Its predominant task is that of command of operations, but HQ is also involved in e.g. matters of military strategy, the development of Armed Forces and acting as a channel of contact with the government.

The Swedish Armed Forces is a government agency responsible for training and maintaining the military forces of the country. The military as a whole reports to the Ministry of Defense. The armed forces are under the command of the Commander-in-Chief, who reports formally to the Cabinet. The Swedish military is divided into 3 branches: Army, Navy, and Air Force. There is also a Swedish Home Guard comprised entirely of volunteers and organized into local battalions. Service in the military is based on conscription of males between the ages of 18 and 47. On average 50,000 men register each year through the National Service Administration, and less than 10,000 of themthen go on to formal military training, most of them in the Army. Women are also eligible to serve in the military, but do so on a volunteer basis, and must pass an entrance exam in order to enter training.

Headquarters includes the Training and Procurement Directorate, the Operations Directorate and the Military Intelligence and Security Directorate (Must). The Training and Procurement Directorate is responsible for developing the Armed Forces mission based organisation through our units, schools and centres. The Training and Procurement Directorate is also responsible for material procurement via the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV). Must pursues defence intelligence operations in support of Swedish foreign, security and defence policies and also military intelligence and security services in line with the needs of the Armed Forces.

The Operations Directorate monitors Swedish territory round the clock 365 days a year, and commands national and international mission-based units. Territorial integrity is maintained by standby and Home Guard units. International Force is an umbrella concept for mission-based units deployed on international service.

In 2015 the Social Democratic Party, the Moderate Party, the Green Party, the Centre Party and the Christian Democrats agreed on a bill to parliament on the Swedish Defence covering the years 2016 to 2020. The new focus on preparing to face an armed attack would gave considerable impact on for the joint forces, not least in the areas of logistics and command and control. The focus of the land Forces on high intensity warfighting at the Brigade level means that the logistics and command and control units should be adjusted accordingly. Parts of the joint logistics and the command and control units would be transferred to the land forces in case of activation or mobilisation in order to perform tactical tasks within the Brigades.

The joint forces would consist of the following units, one Armed Forces Headquarters, four Regional Headquarters, one Communications Battalion, one Command and Control Battalion, one Electronic Warfare Battalion, one Armed Forces Logistics (FMLOG), two Logistics Battalions, one Technical Battalion, one Movement Control Company, two Medical Hospital Companies, two Medical Support Companies, one Special Operations Group and 19 Depot Units.

All parts of the Armed Forces peacetime establishment with tasks to perform in case of raised alter or war would be organised as units. Depot units are organised throughout the country to provide support on local level and to support the activation or mobilisation of the full force. These Depot Units would also provide complementary training of the other units. All personnel working at the peacetime establishment but not assigned to other units would have an assignment at the Depot unit. All parts of the peacetime establishment and all employed personnel with tasks during raised alert or war would thus be organised for war service.