In April 2026, the second edition of Defence Expo Sweden took place. At Magasin 9, by Frihamnen in Stockholm, key players in the defence sector gathered. Attendees ranged from startups and larger companies to authorities such as the Swedish Armed Forces (Försvarsmakten) and the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV). On Tuesday, NDS interviewed representatives from both BAE Systems Bofors and Hägglunds to discuss Swedish rearmament and how large players should handle the demands for rapid innovation and adaptability.
Stefan Löfström is Marketing Director at BAE Systems Bofors, and we meet him at the company's stand during the afternoon.
"I think it's a very interesting format, with a strong Swedish focus, of course. One of the advantages is that you have time to actually talk to and meet several different players. It's positive that we get the opportunity to reach a somewhat broader audience, including those we don't meet at similar events," he says.
Löfström has himself been involved in the defence sector for over 25 years. At the same time, he feels the climate in the industry is different this year compared to previous years.
"I'm thinking above all of the pace, the rate of innovation and the drive that characterises the entire sector, from the political level and the authorities to the industry. It's particularly noticeable in collaboration with tech companies and startups, who are pushing from below and challenging us large manufacturers and OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) to become faster and more agile."
Do you feel greater pressure from players from below?
"We notice that smaller companies and startups often come in and ask questions and want to test new things. We take on board the ideas and try them out, and sometimes it turns out to work brilliantly. This type of initiative is coming from several directions at once, and I think that's very positive."
How does that climate differ from before?
"It's a development that has grown in recent times. We have of course brought in new technology before as well, but then it happened within our more traditional development processes and at a completely different pace. Today, time is a decisive factor," he says.
At the same time, Löfström highlights the security aspect of these processes. Given a high pace of innovation, great demands are also placed on user safety in the products, regardless of the deadline. He describes the combination as a challenge, but nonetheless an exciting one.
Perhaps it doesn't have to be a contradiction?
"No, it doesn't have to be. You have to be able to test, dare to try things out and bring in new technology under controlled conditions. At the same time, of course, you must establish security processes and the right arrangements before the systems are delivered to the Swedish Armed Forces for field use. But I think that balance can be achieved."
In January earlier this year, Bofors presented the concept ALMA (Affordable Loitering Modular Ammunition). The concept is being developed in collaboration with several other startup companies and tech firms, and according to Löfström, Bofors is also looking at introducing AI-based decision support for the Tridon air defence system.
It can be difficult for startups to reach customers. Do you, as a larger company, see it as a responsibility to act as a bridge in that regard?
"Absolutely, we feel a responsibility to do that. Then we naturally also have some form of limited bandwidth, that is, how many or what type of startups we can take on."
Dan Lindell has been at BAE Systems Hägglunds since 2004 and recently took up the role of Head of Systems and Innovation. He agrees that the pace of innovation places greater demands on companies, and that the rapid development was somewhat unpredictable.
"I'll be completely honest and say that it partly caught us off guard when we saw the rate at which everything has increased, and how many new companies have entered the field. We were probably a bit on the back foot for a while, but now we are taking a number of active measures to become faster and better at bringing startups and smaller companies into the organisation," says Dan Lindell.
How do you want to work with innovation?
"We have now allocated dedicated resources, including an Innovation Director who maps accelerators, universities and smaller companies around Sweden. The idea is to get a clearer picture of the entire innovation landscape," says Lindell, continuing:
"The rate of change has been much steeper than we could have predicted, but that's positive, of course. The negative would be if we were perceived as making slow decisions, but we work on that daily."
He mentions that Hägglunds has, among other things, invited companies within NATO DIANA (Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic), an initiative that has provided continued opportunities. Another aspect is that the large players in the ecosystem can facilitate further contact between startups and companies.
Colleagues of yours say that future planning is a challenge. Do you agree?
"They are completely right about that. Traditionally, you make plans on a five or perhaps ten year horizon, with visions and strategies. But in recent years, reality has outpaced the plans. Every year, demand has increased more than expected, and then even more."
"That creates challenges throughout the whole system. First, it's about people; we have too few employees and too few leaders. On the technical side, more systems engineers and designers are needed. Then come procurement and production, and there we encounter the same thing among the subcontractors, who also have to expand their capacity," says Lindell.
At the same time, similar changes are taking place across much of Europe, as the continent rearms. Transforming an entire continent's production landscape is therefore a complicated process. According to Lindell, there are many challenges with this, but also great opportunities.
"We will face challenges at every stage, that's how it is. At the same time, we're on the right track. In ten years, I think people will look back at now and think: did we really pull this off?"
"It's an incredibly exciting journey to be part of, but it requires enormous focus, hard work and a good deal of patience. This won't happen overnight," he says.
Are bureaucratic processes an obstacle?
"If we're going to speed up the innovation cycles, we also need to find new ways of procuring. Initiatives that bring together the defence industry, the authorities and academia are very interesting in that regard. Looking back five years, there was almost a reluctance to engage between the customer, that is FMV and the Swedish Armed Forces, industry and academia. That is now being broken down," says Dan, elaborating:
"The clearest example is the newly established Institute for Warfare Studies (IFK) at the Swedish Defence University. An initiative where the defence industry, academia, authorities and the Swedish Armed Forces jointly try to find solutions to military problems," he says.
Do you agree that we're seeing a broader trend of grassroots initiatives pushing from below?
"Yes, that's absolutely a trend. The challenge for us is to get better at bringing innovations into production faster. Production is something startups are rarely as good at, whereas that's our strength. At the same time, they're often better than us at the innovation part itself," he says, continuing:
"Large companies traditionally work based on clear capability requirements from the customer, and that easily leads to longer development cycles. Often it takes about five years before something is in place. Now we would rather get down to one or one and a half years."
Finally, what would you like to see more of going forward?
"To succeed with everything we've talked about requires major changes in processes and how the ecosystem works. But we see that many large companies are thinking in the same direction, and that's when things start to happen. It takes a bit of time to gain momentum, but once it does, we will become unstoppable," says Lindell.