number of conscripts, and more officer training are some of the elements included
in the Swedish Armed Forces' new budget proposal for 2025, according to the agency's website.
On 6 May 2024, the government tasked the Swedish Armed Forces with submitting a new budget proposal for 2025. The government's mandate specifies that the agency should:
- base it on the previously submitted budget proposal for 2025.
- include proposals for measures based on several suggestions from the Defence Commission.
In light of this, the Swedish Armed Forces will submit a new budget proposal for 2025 to the government on 5 June 2024.
Following the government's proposition to the parliament and the parliament's decision, we will enter a new defence decision after the turn of the year. As NATO's joint operational planning deepens, the requirements will become increasingly clear, which is why the Swedish Armed Forces assess that there is a significant need for flexibility in the planning that is decided upon in the coming years.
– The Swedish Armed Forces deliberately set a very high ambition. Uncertainties in planning – for example, regarding personnel recruitment, procurement of materiel, and infrastructure development – increase over time. The development of the external environment requires us, and the actors who are to achieve the objectives together, to do everything to reach the set goals, says Supreme Commander Micael Bydén in a comment on the Swedish Armed Forces' website.
Planned investments in new capabilities The new budget proposal collectively means that the Swedish Armed Forces develop a higher degree of interoperability, the ability to operate within NATO's command structure, greater endurance, and better availability. Examples:
- Increased focus on air defence and the ability to be part of NATO's integrated air and missile defence.
- Enhanced capability to both use and defend against unmanned vehicles.
- Increased capability to operate with combat forces outside Sweden's borders.
A stronger defence According to the Swedish Armed Forces' website, the agency's starting point has been to maintain the budget proposal from 1 March 2024 to the greatest extent possible. Additionally, within the government's specified guidelines on economic planning frameworks and their distribution, the Swedish Armed Forces have incorporated as much as possible of the Defence Commission's proposals that the government highlighted in its mandate.
The Swedish Armed Forces note, after reviewing the feasibility of the entirety formed by the military advice of the Swedish Armed Forces, subsequent budget proposals, and the government's instructions for this budget proposal, that the plan is feasible. However, given the conditions, it is not possible to fully implement all proposals.
– The major enhancement of defence capability lies in previous proposals that the Defence Commission has endorsed. Additionally, within the allocated budget, the Swedish Armed Forces have incorporated as much as possible of the Defence Commission's proposals that the government highlighted in its mandate to us. Now it remains to see what the government's proposition to the parliament looks like and how the upcoming defence decision is finally shaped in directives to the agency, says Director General Mikael Granholm in a comment on the Swedish Armed Forces' website.
The Swedish Armed Forces state that their previous recommendation remains that further preparation of higher ambition levels should be carried out. The planning now described, based on the government's instructions, should be seen as a step in a long-term development and not as an end goal.