Sweden is a great and amazing country with its own people and traditions and
despite its population
It is quite a large country
With a lot of places to protect and although Sweden may be a country that has had a neutral attitude
Towards warfare for over a century lung. They still do indeed defend themselves if need be
But with what forces behind it
Hey, everybody what's going on Dave Walpole here
And we're gonna talk about
Sweden's and military forces now before I get into this video guys if you guys are a huge person that really loves learning about
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We're gonna look at one of the most interesting armies in the world because although they may be
Neutral they do have some pretty interesting forces within it and before I get in this video. I got to ask you guys
What is your favorite army in the entire world like some people might say the United States Army because it's just so big or China
Or something like that, but remember other armies have different things about it such as different policies, so which army is your favorite
Let me know why down there cool, but let's get started
Let's talk about Sweden's military forces so first of all let's start off with its manpower
Now the manpower of Sweden is roughly about 4 million
65,000 people but if you were to break that manpower down the people that are actually fit for service equal about three million four hundred
Thousand and to go deeper into that that means there are males that are fit for duty and that there are
Females that are fit for duty because Sweden allows females to have an active role in the military as well
Now in today's world its military personnel is roughly
57,000 and to break that down
It's active personnel sits at approximately twenty two thousand five hundred people with about thirty four thousand five hundred
Reserves now keep in mind guys. That is Jeff a loose estimate
It doesn't mean that these are exact numbers because well, military forces don't like to give out exact numbers
It's just really not kind of a good thing to do they gotta have some classified information as well
Now within this personnel they defend Sweden's interests and one unit in particular is the Royal Guards now
They say there's approximately 100 to 200 of these royal guards
and they are very popular within the country first of all they're a huge tourist attraction because
People like to take photos of them and like the ones in Britain these ones do defend the royal family at the Royal Palace in
Stockholm now what I was talking about the active personnel
And the reserve units that are within the military forces keep in mind that was an estimation from like
2017 because as of January 1st of 2018
Sweden has put in conscription once again for the use and one of the reasons for this is because back in
2013 they actually did a poll and they discovered that only 6% of people in Sweden actually
Believe that they have sufficient forces to defend themselves so they obviously were like well
We gotta up this and we got to get people in the army a little bit more now
Let's take this army and break it down even further because there's also things like Air Force Navy and of course the Marines now for
Aircraft they have approximately
198 when it comes to their total aircraft strength for fighter crafts they have approximately
72 with the main fighter of Sweden being the sa a B Jas 39 Gripen
And of course they are replacing some of their older fighters out with the Jas 39
EF with approximately 70 of them on the way to be delivered now as for attack craft
They have approximately 74 transport aircraft
They have approximately 53 and a helicopter
Strengths with 49 now for these helicopters a majority of them are actually transport helicopters that have more of a defensive than offensive
Capability now let's divvy it up into its
mobile division when we talk about that we got to talk about tanks now for their combat tanks, they have approximately
120 of them and these are the strv
121 leopard 2 tanks
Which actually when it comes to these tanks just because everybody else has them doesn't make it any different because these are actually really good
Tanks. We've seen in places like Germany Canada and other places in Europe
For their armored fighting vehicles there's approximately two thousand four hundred and seventy of them
But let's go even further guys and let's take a look at their Navy assets because unfortunately
Sweden doesn't really have a lot of them currently their Navy assets sits at approximately
63 with nine of these being Corvettes five submarines and as of today Sweden doesn't have any destroyers battleships
Which are extraordinarily outdated and of course aircraft carriers?
Why because well they don't really need them when they're just defending their own turf and on top of that let's not forget the fact
That they have 14 we patrol craft
Now how does this all break down well when it comes to all the machines that the military uses they actually need about
300,000 barrels a day of oil and one downside to Sweden is that they only produce about
1,000 barrels of oil a day
So they got to import a lot of oil from different countries just to keep their army going and as for nuclear plans
Well, you could pretty much guess that because Sweden is a defensive and neutral country
It wouldn't have any weapons of mass destruction
So there's gonna be no nukes in the country and the plans for nuclear capability within Sweden were scrapped by
1968 when Sweden signed the nuclear non-proliferation
Treaty and by 1972 every plan of nuclear capability for Sweden was removed from the country
Now for the budget of the military we're gonna go with
2015 statistics because it's kind of hard to get a
2017 number currently Sweden spends approximately
1.2 4 percent of its total GDP on its military with a budget equaling 40
8.45 1 billion sweden Crona, which if we were to convert that into US dollars it would be approximately
5.8. Billion, but as for 2017 it's roughly believed that Sweden actually has turned it up a notch
And they spend over 6 billion dollars on their military
And the policies and rules of the Sweden military are one to defend the country if attacked by a foreign nation
- to support the civil community in case of disasters stuff like that would be like flooding or major storms
Or even earthquakes hurricanes stuff like that although they don't get hurricanes up in Sweden and three to deploy forces to international peace support
operations
Which the third one rings true because Sweden has provided a lot of troops for UN peacekeeping missions?
And when it comes to their peace missions they've been a part of things that have helped the Ebola outbreak
They've been in Israel Lebanon they were also part of operation, Atalanta
Which was a joint operation from other countries from around the world to fight piracy in African countries like Somalia?
They also saw combat in the Congo crisis and the Bosnian war in the 1990s as well
They have a task force that is in charge of overseeing the truce at the Korean Demilitarized Zone
And of course they had soldiers in Afghanistan which saw combat
So that is a brief look at the military power of Sweden and sure they may not be a major force to reckon with
But when it comes to their defense they have got it where it counts
With up-to-date firearms and munitions Sweden is a country that you wouldn't want to tick off
However overall Sweden is a country that is smart enough to pick its battles very carefully, but that's it guys
My name is Dave WAP
And I want to thank you guys all for tuning in it's great that you guys come over to the channel and learn about many
Different cultures and militaries from all around the world that being said I want to know your thoughts about this military down there
also
I want to know
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That's where it's at but other than that that's been the country of Sweden a great
Military power that just knows what it's doing in the war and sure it's continuously updating itself and making it better and making it more
Defensible and with that in mind let us know your thoughts on this amazingly strong powerful and well put together
Military force as this is the country people
Culture and soldiers of Sweden who may have a neutral heart deep down
But will defend themselves in time of crisis and will always be there to extend a hand
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