Sweden's rapid military rearmament is happening faster than the ability to bring in new suppliers, according to Diadrom Holding AB's CEO Viktor Eliasson.
The real bottleneck is not technology — it is the administrative processes. Procurement, export control and qualification take longer than the actual technology development itself. "We can build in months. It takes years to get approval to deliver," says Eliasson.
Companies with existing capacity are being prevented by bureaucratic processes from reaching the defence deals that need their products. When requirements change during lengthy approval cycles, specialised expertise risks migrating to markets with shorter barriers to entry.
Diadrom, which is in transition from the automotive industry to defence, brings with it two decades of experience in managing software life cycles in safety-critical systems. The company's philosophy: "Nothing works until everything works."
Eliasson emphasises that the criticism is not directed at regulations as such, but at the predictability of the procedures. Stricter requirements are manageable — what is costly is the uncertainty about how long the process will take.
On 14 October, Eliasson will take part in a panel discussion at Gothenburg Tech Week with representatives from major defence groups, industry organisations and authorities.
The material above is published by a third party through Nordic Defence Sector and does not constitute editorial content from the NDS newsroom.