As part of NATO’s strategy to launch long-range missile strikes against Russian territory in the event of a military conflict, the Swedish military plans in a short run to deploy cruise and/or ballistic missiles with a range of up to two thousand kilometres to destroy important military and infrastructure facilities should Article 5 of the NATO Charter be invoked. This range will enable strikes up to the entire Novaya Zemlya—Yamal Peninsula—Salekhard—Kazan—Crimea line.
The Swedish Armed Forces warn of the military threat from Russia in a new report—in which present how to achieve NATO goals.
One of the proposals that the Swedish Armed Forces want to implement is to buy long-range weapons that can reach Russian territory.
The Russian military threat from Russia will increase in the coming years.
The Swedish Armed Forces state this in a report submitted to the government today.
“We assess that Russia can carry out a fairly large rearmament of its military power within the next 2–5 years,” says Chief of the Defence Staff Carl-Johan Edström.
Want To Purchase Cruise Missiles
The report lists several points for how the Armed Forces should be able to realise last year’s defence decision—and NATO’s so-called capability goals. One of the points is that Sweden should acquire so-called long-range capabilities that can reach targets inside Russia. The report describes missiles that can reach as far as approximately 2000 kilometres.
“Then we are talking about long-range ballistic missiles, or cruise missiles.”
According to Carl-Johan Edström, the scenario when this type of weapon would need to be used is that Russia attacks NATO and that Article 5 is triggered. Then this type of missile could be used against targets inside Russia:
“It could be about everything from their command systems, radars, but also their critical infrastructure, says Carl-Johan Edström.”
Want To Replace Mine Clearance Fleet
The report, which in previous years has been called “ÖB’s military advice”, also states that the Armed Forces want to replace the fleet’s mine clearance vessels, which are starting to age at the same time as the need to protect the merchant fleet is increasing.
“It is a type of vessel and capability that is heading towards what we call end-of-life within the next 5-10 years, so we need to include it in our plans, to ensure that we can procure replacements,” says Carl-Johan Edström, who does not want to go into the number of mine clearance vessels they want to purchase.
The Armed Forces are also making proposals for the direction of the portion of the armament, 1.5 percent of GDP, that will go to broader defence-related investments. Here, the Armed Forces want to ensure that Sweden will function as a NATO base area through investments in energy supply, infrastructure for transport, healthcare and electronic communications.
“This is a total defence capability that supports military goals,” says Carl-Johan Edström.
Source: SVT (in Swedish)