The Voluntary Radio Organisation (FRO) is one of the 18 voluntary defence organisations in Sweden. We contribute to the development of total defence with great commitment. In our world, voluntary means prepared and trained personnel.
The opportunity to gather the finest of community engagement and train voluntary specialists is important and makes us very proud. It is not the spectators who make a difference.
FRO recruits and trains reinforcement personnel for the entire total defence. Our specialists focus on radio communication, signal protection, and cybersecurity. In 2023, we conducted nearly 100 courses and projects within both military and civil defence.
Reinforcement personnel is a term we use to describe the individuals we train who normally have another profession. After training, they are assigned a wartime position at, for example, an authority. In this way, the person can strengthen the existing authority's resilience. The placement means that the person is called into the operation during heightened readiness. In most cases, the personnel are relatively available even in peacetime crises, but then different laws apply, and the respective regular employer has greater authority.
Recruiting and training reinforcement personnel and embedding the need for a strong total defence is something we take extremely seriously.
Growing assignments and government collaborations
The need and demand for our expertise have increased in line with the war in Ukraine but also linked to the clarity created by the government appointing a minister for civil defence in the Ministry of Defence. The interest in building a strong total defence starts in the government and parliament, which has also shown to have a positive effect over the past year.
The association has significantly increased the number of clients over the past year within civil defence. We have experienced a clear shift in attitude towards war and heightened readiness, and now authorities, county administrative boards, and municipalities have begun to build resilience. It is absolutely fantastic!
FRO has actively worked to highlight positive examples within civil defence. The aim is to clarify how to build one's own capability. The County Administrative Board of Skåne, Svenska kraftnät, the Swedish Transport Administration, the city of Västerås, and Katrineholm municipality are some of the operations we believe can show the way for others!
Building a country's capability takes time. The personnel that FRO trains, in most cases, have families, jobs, and leisure interests that compete for time. We know how much all volunteers and their families and employers give to make the puzzle of life fit together. For this, we are incredibly grateful!
A strengthened capability in cybersecurity
We are pleased to see how our efforts to strengthen cyber defence were highlighted in the government's budget proposal as well as in the Defence Commission's interim report "Kraftsamling".
FRO has received a clarified leadership role from the Swedish Armed Forces for the coordination of voluntary reinforcement resources in the area of cybersecurity and cyber defence. Partly to increase the basic understanding of cyber threats in all positions, and partly to develop specific specialist training.
We also focus on several courses related to cybersecurity for young people. Both basic courses in cybersecurity and courses related to ethical hacking. We will continue to work with these concepts in the future and hope to offer young people several opportunities to find an interest and a future in the cyber domain.
A new Secretary General takes over
In January 2024, we welcome the association's new Secretary General, Johanna Sjöberg. Originating from the Swedish Armed Forces, she will lead the association forward. It feels very reassuring to hand over the operation to Johanna, and I wish her all the best in her future work!
I am moving on to new tasks but will, of course, always have one foot in the operation.
I would like to extend a big thank you to our clients, fantastic members, dedicated officials, and knowledgeable instructors. Your commitment and contribution are what drive our organisation forward and enable our continued success.
Together, we will build a safer and more robust future for Sweden.
Fredrik Färnqvist