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For the first time, it is openly reported how much taxpayers pay to develop and buy Swedish fighter jets and submarines. This has been the case since the Defense Committee last year criticized the lack of transparency about what these two priority areas actually cost.
In the budget, the government now declares that SEK 20 billion will be invested in 2021 in investments in combat aviation, mainly in the new Gripen E aircraft, which is now being built at Saab in Linköping.
Annual sums are increasing then all the way to 2026 (so the level is 11.5 billion). Thereafter, an additional 50 billion is declared for the years 2027-2032. When DN adds up all the combat aviation figures, the sum will be SEK 107.9 billion.
In Malmö and Karlskrona, Saab is developing and building the new A 26 Blekinge submarine. Investments in submarines will cost SEK 3.9 billion next year. Here, too, costs will gradually increase until 2026 (then seven billion). The years 2027–32 will add 41 billion, and the total for all years 2021–2032 will be SEK 72.9 billion.
In total, combat flights cost and subsea capacity, therefore 180.8 billion until 2032. The investments have been motivated by the fact that the areas are so-called “essential security interests” where Sweden must have its own expertise.
The various military defense authorities have received increased funding in recent years. For next year, an increase is proposed from approximately SEK 58 billion this year to SEK 66 billion in 2021. Of this, approximately SEK 20 billion will go to equipment and facilities.
But while the state invests billions in future systems, the Gripen plan is flying less and less:
“For Jas 39, flight time production has fallen for the fourth year in a row, which the Armed Forces say is due, among other things, to major inspections taking longer than planned,” the government writes.
After russia annexation from Crimea in 2014, Gripen’s flight time increased to a maximum of 11,287 flight hours in 2015. But since then, the flight time has decreased and ended in 2019 at just 9,624 hours.
In addition to the plan being in the workshops, the Air Force has vacancies among the personnel. Therefore, “they have been forced to prioritize intervention activities and training over capacity development,” the government writes. In plain text: combat aviation does not have time to practice enough in its combat tasks.
All types of aircraft in the Swedish Air Force flew less in 2019 than in 2018, with one exception: the radar reconnaissance aircraft S 100D / ASC 890, which has frequently been in the air in an increasingly deteriorating security situation. . The new helicopter 14, which is still delivered and towed with high operating costs, flies less and less frequently: 1,025 hours in 2019 versus 1,454 in 2018.
There is an imbalance in the Armed Forces, as indicated by both the Armed Forces Committee and the Commander-in-Chief. Despite the improvements, there is a lack of equipment for the training of the 4,500 recruits.
“There are still deficiencies in terms of access to equipment to, among other things, be able to carry out basic training with military service in parallel with the training and exercise of the permanent units, which affects both the development of the unit and production of the unit “, affirms the government.
Trucks, tanks and tanks are not enough in the army. The reason is that the vehicles are old with little availability or are being renewed. The Navy has managed to increase the operating time of its ships, but the exercises are limited by the lack of spare parts “for equipment loaded with aging.”
