So we're on FTD facts we've done a lot of videos on different aspects of the Armed Forces of not just every other country
but specifically Sweden I've talked about how powerful the country is from military perspective and
about the Marines the Navy the Air Force and the special forces group as well which by the way if any of you guys are
Interested in those keep an eye out in the cards in this video for those playlists on Sweden's military
But today in this video you and I are gonna learn as much as we can about the army
specifically the ground forces of Sweden
What's up, guys?
Dave Walpole here and welcome to another awesome video here on FTD Facts some on military people who are just loving this military content
Thanks for coming back and watching a new video me
I'm loving learning about Sweden and I'm loved and learning about military which by the way guys
I feel like I'm starting to get a little thin on my military Sweden topic
So if you guys got any suggestions on stuff that you guys would like to see let me know down there in the comment section
Below, but anyways, let's get started
If by the way you are liking this video and you want more content around Sweden's military
Hit the like button because then I know to continue to do this stuff
so let's start off with some of the basics and let's be perfectly honest to Sweden's army is one of the oldest if not the
Oldest unit in the entire Armed Forces of Sweden and not only that it's also classified as one of the oldest military
Groups in the entire world, of course what I mean? It's the oldest and still going on today the most
Continuously long military you get what? I mean? I'm not really good with these words things
I mean, maybe I should just give up on f.2d facts altogether
So for the unit they began in 1521
Which was even a year prior to the introduction of Sweden's official Navy now
Of course some of you people in Sweden you guys or people who know a lot about Sweden you may be saying yourself, okay
Oh, come on, Dave. No sweetens had an army from long before that and that is true
However, truth be told a lot of people just identify the founding date as the year of
1521 as it was the beginning of the Swedish war of liberation
Which was started when Gustav Vasa who actually also had a ship named after him known as the Vasa which by the way
I'm correct myself in my Navy video. It sunk on its you know inaugural voyage. At least that's what you guys were telling
But anyways, let's get back to the army
But for good stuff and his rebel group they decided they wanted to be their own government and fought against Denmark enorme
Nor may I mean Norway? Don't ask what happened there tonight really is called Norway nor may you
Know you read things and it just comes out so quick so I know one regions out there
I know there might be a few guys watching either way
this was a part of a group called the
Kalmar Union and Sweden didn't really want to be a part of that
Of course prior to 1521 Sweden did have land forces. They weren't really identified as an army
I mean you could classify the Vikings and their conquest of the world as
Pretty much a land force and even a naval force - that's right because those Norse ships were bad
And of course to give you very specific
Details about the army is kind of hard to do because it's hard to go back that far
But here is a list of some of the words that the ground forces of Sweden took part of for example in
1015 - 1018 there was the Norwegian Sweden or which happened again? Also 90 years later on top of that
there was also the Swedish Crusades - Finland which by the way a lot of people think that the first crusade which was in about
1150 ad a lot of people think that that was more or less a myth, but there was also a
Second swedish crusade that happened in 1249 and a third one happening in
1293 which during the third one there was a major attack of the Viborg castle in which land forces
Basically won the battle and sweden ended up ruling over Corellia for over
400 years as well moving a little bit more forward. There was also the Danish Swedish war which began in
1472 71 and probably one of the biggest ones to mention was the rush of swedish war from fourteen
Ninety five to fourteen ninety seven on top of that. There was also the second day
No swedish war that lasted from 1501 to 1512. And of course that is just a brief summary
There was a lot of wars that Sweden took part of but moving up to the Army's foundation date
Which is in 1521 during the Swedish liberation war it was estimated that during that time Sweden had approximately
12,000 troops now, I'm not sure if this is necessarily navy or ground forces
But I can estimate that a majority of them were on the ground and to give you an idea through out this war of liberation
They were against
27,000 troops and ended up winning the war with less than 4,000 casualties. So there you go
That's just a little bit of a history of kind of the army prior to
1521 however moving a little bit forward to 1814
This was a very important war because this was the last war for a long time that Sweden's army and other armed forces
Took part in offensive measures during a war as a matter of fact
The army was not realistically used in other countries around the world until 1961
This was known as the campaign against Norway
and as a matter of fact to give you an idea of all the wars that Sweden had been a part of that they currently
know including this war of
1814 and the liberation war of
1521 the Sweden army has been in no less than 26 Wars or engagements
And if you were to ask how many engagements Sweden has been a part of to Day?
2019 Sweden's army has been a part of at least 29 engagements throughout its history now, okay
I just want to roll this video back just a tiny tiny bit and I want to talk about World War one in World War
two first of all
I like to mention these two wars within all of my military videos
Simply due to the fact that a lot of people don't have an understanding of what Sweden was like during that
Time or those times the reason is because a lot of people have the idea that just because Sweden was neutral
It didn't do much throughout the war. I don't know that might be true
I think it's very important that we look at what Sweden was doing during the two biggest conflicts of the
20th century now due to what is known as the defense bill in 1914 Sweden up their army infantry
divisions from six to twelve and one of the hard things is to identify how many
Combat-ready troops that were available within Sweden during the First World War some reports have estimated that they had approximately
200,000 troops, but with also not enough supplies and people to lead them. It said that Sweden kept no more than
13,000 troops in arms
However, during World War one Sweden sent a lot of officers into the Western Front to learn the type of combat that was happening
But however, I should mention that during the Finnish Civil War. That was from January to May
19:18 there was approximately 200 officers and 400 NCOs that volunteered to assist Finland again
Not sure if that is army airforce and all that stuff
But you could probably guess that a majority of that is ground forces
Now of course world war ii came around and things were a lot different
They had a lot more heightened security as a matter of fact in my video about the Air Force
I was really impressed to find out that during that time Sweden had like the third largest air force in the entire world
but as for the army their numbers at their peak was approximately
300,000 troops now many of these troops were put along the coast and borders to prevent
Invasions and although it says that their numbers jump they believe that it never went below
25,000 troops but during World War two the army adopted weapons such as the
Kpis TM 45 which is basically their version of a submachine gun
There was also the well-known Sweden Mauser called for many the Guevara
M96 and as well the kgm 40 light machine gun all of these which of course were Swedish made
Interesting to know also during the beginning of the Second World War Sweden was still using a lot of horses for transportation
However, things didn't stay this way because in 1939 at the beginning of the war
They had one Armored Division with approximately 29 fighting vehicles or tanks
however, by the end of the war the amount of tanks and heavy armored vehicles they had grew to
795 quite a bit also during world war ii in
1940 they created what is now known as one of the largest groups within I guess the ground forces
but not necessarily the army of
Sweden and that is the Home Guard now these guys are pretty much your first responder as they respond to
catastrophes that happen within the country and of course they act as a reserve unit for Sweden and in today's will the Home Guard
alone has approximately
22,000 soldiers
Comprising of 40 battalions, but like I said, I'm just mentioning that because they are classified as a land force
But they're not theoretically part of the army department. One of their agent reasons is because they have two different commanders
I mean, they're all under one big command, but two separate ones that they answer to at least this is from my understand
This is work out a little bit confusing basically to go into details in 1975
The monarch of Sweden was the formal head of the army in today's world
However, it is Carl Engel Breton as for the army itself. It's said that in 2014
There was roughly 50,000 soldiers that are full-time and part-time
Which was also a goal. They wanted to achieve by 2020 during the Cold War
And the rest of the army conscription was a major part that accounted for 85% of the male's who were in service fYI
Conscription actually does exist today for all divisions within the Armed Forces and it's also applied to females as well
Also, although this isn't a major fact
but it is kind of important in 2018 Sweden did something with its army that it hadn't done in 40 years and that
Was a mobilization of all its forces in a test operation and this happened on June 6th
Which is also Sweden's National Day
Like I said, it's not really a mind-blowing fact because they just kind of went on patrols and did other sort of test operations
But it's good to know that Sweden is doing things to keep its army going but in today's world
Let's take a look at some of the different divisions that are within the army itself
Basically, one of the first ones that I want to talk about is the Life Guards, which is not what you think it is
It's not like Life Guards like, you know in a swimming pool. They're watching out for people. They're called The Life Guards
They are an actual army unit. These guys have been around since 2000 and they are classified as a Calvary infantry regiment
There's also the life regiment hussars, which is one of the oldest military groups in all of Europe
That's quite impressive
This group is classified as a light mobile unit, and they also have a paratrooper department and they've been around since at least
1536 on top of that there is the Scout Borg armored Brigade and many other infantry units
There is also the Norrbotten regiment which specializes in army infantry and commando arctic combat units
There is also air defense Artillery and the South Scania armored regiment also for the Special Forces SOG
You guys might be curious. Are these guys under the army?
well
Not necessarily
Because these guys operate directly under the supreme commander of Sweden's armed forces and that is General Michael Biden
Speaking of armored division's let's take a look at some of the vehicles that the army does use
Unlike other European countries that are phasing out tanks Sweden does have their very own version of the leopard 2a4 and the leopard
2a5 and these two are classified as the strip or strv
121 and the 122 and basically in total they say they have approximately
122 of all of these tanks on top of that they use the Parana 3c and the
Patriot AM V and the Patriot pass e as
armoured personnel carriers and if you've been paying attention to my previous videos
You would already know that the cv90 is their major infantry fighting vehicle, and it's made in Sweden. It's a good vehicle
and basically they have over the
354 of these alone. You got a lot of them and last but not least
Let's take a look at some of the actual handhelds that the army uses when we talk about the infantry of Sweden's army
they actually have two main rifles which are basically their own version of the
G3a3 known as the a k4 and their very own version of the fnc known as the a k5
They also have their own version of the light machine gun known as the FN minimi and the F and Maj
Or mag or ma G mag
I don't really know how to pronounce that but these are the KSP
58 and the KSP
90s and of course a bunch of other
Equipment that I'm not gonna go into because I just like talking about the main stuff
But either way guys, that is me looking at the Army of Sweden
I love going into some of the historical aspects as you know, and some of the modern aspects
So I hope you guys got a general understanding of this great military. Well military division, you know what I mean?
But either way guys, my name is Dave waffle. Thanks for tuning in
And by the way, if you are really liking this sort of content, you want to check out more Sweden military topics
Well, I got a playlist and it's been in the cards
I'll probably just put one up here right now that you guys can check out there is also another video
Segment that you can check out or a video playlist segment and that is just on the country itself
I've learned many great things about Sweden and what makes the country awesome
So feel free to check those out as well
And if you don't wanna hit the cards
They're just gonna be at the end of the video or in the description box below
But if you guys feel like man also because I feel like I'm running really low on some of the military
Topics in Sweden you guys having ideas. I mean, I do have some stuff in the back of my head
This brain is wild
Let me know down there in the comments section below some of your recommendations
Hit that like button if you like this video and I will see you guys in the next one
If not, you have a fantastic day, okay
Time to go to the bathroom. Bye
Alright so here are those playlists that I was telling you about check them out guys, they are really awesome
We've gone into great details of all the military divisions. Of course, I'm not done yet. I'm gonna just keep talking about it
Thanks for watching. See you the next one