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As DN reveals, the Swedish Armed Forces show on their website a large number of areas where there are secret and top-secret protected objects.
In Sweden, the secret of the defense generally applies for 40 years. But fixed installations, built in the billions, can be classified for up to 150 years. This applies to “the kingdom’s permanent defense facilities for war use or maintenance facilities that defense groups may reveal.”
When the Armed Forces previously reported areas with such national interests under the Environmental Code, this was done to the county administrative boards through classified letters. This was the case from the end of the Cold War until 2013, when the authority began publishing the information on the website.
The focus of the Swedish Armed Forces was then on international efforts, not on the facilities here at home. But in 2015, the Riksdag changed its defense policy: the main task is again national defense. Next week, the Riksdag will again significantly increase funding for an upgrade to be completed in 2030.
With a tighter security situation, individuals have been prosecuted since last year for mapping military installations. A man who mapped 40 protected objects in Skåne was sentenced in November to one month in prison. During an event at Saab on November 19, DN asked Commander-in-Chief Micael Bydén about safety protection.
– We have sharpened our own business. It should be remembered that we have had defense planning resumed for only a few years. That information should not be shared, there are facilities that we must keep secret. We are much more careful now than we were a few years ago, ÖB replied.
Despite ÖB’s words In December 2019, the Swedish Armed Forces republished the national interest maps on its website. Therefore, well before this publication, DN sent interview questions to ÖB or the head of administration staff. One question was whether the authority would take any action in relation to the publication of DN. Instead of an interview, an email arrived with “the general response from the authority”:
“We live in an open society and the information published on the Swedish Armed Forces website does not reveal any detailed information about the facilities or what they do. The map services available on the Internet also do not indicate what military installations are or what they do. “
The authority further wrote: “Just because things are visible on a map service does not mean that you get a holistic understanding of what you see. What is worthy of protection may be difficult or even impossible for the inexperienced eye to see. “
DN finally refers Ulrika Gustafsson, Head of the Physical Planning Section of the Production Division at Headquarters.
Has DN spoken to experts who say it makes it easier for foreign powers, terrorists and criminals?
– The preparation we have done, and where those affected have been involved in the organization, has come to the conclusion that we must mark these areas in this way, replies Ulrika Gustafsson.
The foreign power does not have “inexperienced eyes”. Are they intelligence specialists?
– This does not mean that you see what is worthy of protection. It is not necessarily the fact that something is in a particular place that is worth protecting.
Have you thought about the fact that you can read a lot more maps in the back than you thought?
– As I said, a preparation has been made in which those involved in the military part of the total defense are involved. He hasn’t shown that, replies Ulrika Gustafsson.
The authority admits that there may still be problems at the end of its written response: “There is always the risk that the information published on the website may be misused. A combination of several individual data, even open data, can generate completely new information. By combining the information and thus mapping the protected objects, you can commit a crime. “
