Auftragstaktik: Swedish Forces, 1980s

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Swedish Forces, 1980s

Introduction
It is a testament to the Swedish society and the armed forces it created that it was successful, throughout the 20th Century, in safeguarding its neutrality and sovereignty while at the same time preserving its democratic institutions. In spite of its small population, Sweden has maintained a reasonable degree of defense self-sufficiency, with firms like Hagglunds, FFV, Bofors and Saab achieving worldwide reputations for the high quality of their products, including Sven Berge's highly innovative Stridsvagn-103 turretless tank. The Cold War was the final test of Sweden's resolve, a test it passed with flying colors. Although not a member of NATO, it fielded a highly capable, well trained, and well equipped military that compared favorably with the armed forces of its likely adversaries, namely the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact puppet states. The most likely scenarios included amphibious landings on its coast and/or on the island of Gotland, or an overland invasion of its northern parts through Norway or Finland. Even during peacetime, the Swedish military had to contend with numerous Soviet provocations, including submarine penetrations of its coastal waters (most notably the infamous "Whiskey on the rocks" incident), and other forms of sovereignty violations (some of which may have been due to poor navigational training rather than intent). These measures were combined with aggressive Soviet espionage efforts directed at Sweden, which in turn were countered by skillful counterintelligence efforts that made Sweden one of the least popular (next to West Germany) postings for KGB and GRU officers (for example, the current, as of 2005, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov had his "diplomatic" career rudely brought to an end by Swedish counterintelligence). Sweden met the Soviet threat with a credible and balanced force consisting of a modern air force, a capable navy that focused on coastal operations, and a land force with mobilization strength of 6 armored brigades, 20 infantry brigades, and 5 Norrland brigades optimized for operations in arctic conditions.

Doctrine and Troop Quality
Standing forces: Veteran, Very High Morale
Mobilization forces: Regular, High Morale
Doctrine: Decentralized for armored, Norrland brigades, Balanced for infantry brigades.
HQ Rating: 5 (4 for mobilization forces)
HQ Command Radius: 8 (infantry brigade), 12 (armored and Norrland brigade), 16 (Division)

Cross-attachments:
Battalions do not exchange companies. Companies within a battalion may exchange platoons, or platoon(s) from one company in a battalion may be attached to other company(s) in the same battalion. Brigades do not exchange or transfer battalions.

Unit Organization

Size codes: s=small, m=medium, l=large; p=platoon, c=company, b=battery

Battalions
Armored Battalion: 2 Tank Companies (mc), 2 Armored Infantry Companies (mc), 2 APC Companies (mc), 2 Armored Infantry Platoons (sp) [attached to tank companies], 2 Jeep/90mmRCL Platoons (mp) [attached to armored infantry companies], 1 105mm truck-towed howitzer battery (sb)

Infantry Battalion: 4 Infantry Companies, 1 Jeep/90mmRCL Platoon (mp), 1 120mm Mortar Battery (mb) [truck-towed]

Norrland Infantry Battalion: As infantry battalion, but with all stands carried/towed by BV-206 all-terrain vehicles

Motorized Infantry Battalion: As infantry battalion, but with infantry companies carried by trucks

Bicycle Infanry Battalion: 3 Bicycle Infantry Companies, 1 Jeep/90mmRCL Platoon (mp), 1 81mm Mortar Battery (lb) [truck-towed]

Artillery Battalion: 3 Batteries (sb)

Anti-Aircraft Battalion: 3 Bofors 40mm truck-towed batteries (mb) or 3 RBS-70 batteries (mb) [truck-mobile]

Brigades

Armored Brigade: 3 Armored Battalions, 2 AT Companies [each with 1 Jeep/90mmRCL Platoon (mp), 2 Jeep/ATGM Platoons (mp)], 1 towed 155mm Howitzer Artillery Battalion, 1 Reconnaissance Company [3 Recon Infantry Platoons (sp), 1 Jeep/90mmRCL Platoon (mp)]

Motorized Infantry Brigade: 3 Motorized Infantry Battalions, 1 Ikv-91 Assault Gun Company (mc), 1 TOW ATGM (truck-mobile) AT Company (mc), 1 AA Company [2 20mm towed AA gun batteries (sb), 1 RBS-70 battery (mb)], 1 towed 155mm Howitzer Artillery Battalion, 1 Reconnaissance Company [3 Recon Jeep Platoons (sp), 1 Jeep/90mmRCL Platoon (mb)]

Infantry Brigade: 2 Infantry Battalions, 1 Bicycle Infantry Battalion, 1 Ikv-91 Assault Gun Company (mc), 1 TOW ATGM (truck-mobile) AT Company (mc), 1 AA Company [2 20mm towed AA gun batteries (sb), 1 RBS-70 battery (mb)], 1 towed 155mm Howitzer Artillery Battalion

Norrland Brigade: as Motorized Infantry Brigade, but with 3 Norrland Infantry Battalions and all weapons carried/towed by BV-206 instead of trucks.

Divisions:
Sweden had 8 divisional headquarters with no permanently assigned brigades and no uniform organization for the time of war. Each brigade, in addition to a number of brigades, would also control artillery and air defense assets.

Unit Data:

Main Battle Tanks and Assault Guns

Stridsvagn-103 ("S-tank") Tank Company
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
mc	8t	11*	G (g/b): 10	HE (g/b): M HW: 2 [4]	--	II; may not fire with HA orders

Stridsvagn-101/-102/-104 (Centurion) Tank Company
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
mc	6t	9*	G (g/b): 10	HE (g/b): M HW: 2 [4]	--	II; may not fire with HA orders

IKV-91 Assault Gun Company
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
mc	8t	2	G (b/b): 8	HE (b/b): L HW: 2 [4]	--	II

APCs

Pbv-302 APC Company
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
mc	8t	2	G (b/b): 3	HW: 2 [6]	--	Transports infantry up to own size.

VKPV m/42 APC Company
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
mc	8lw	1	--	HW: 2 [4]	--	Transports infantry up to own size.

BV-206 Company
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
mc	8t	0	--	HW: 2 [4]	--	Transports infantry up to own size. Ignores snow and mud.

Infantry

Infantry Company
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
mc	2f	0	CC: 4	SA: 1 HW: 2 [4] CC: 4	--	II

Reconnaissance

Recon Jeep Platoon
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
sp	8w	0	--	HW: 2 [4]	--	II

Anti-Tank

TOW ATGM Company
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
mc	8w	0/-2	*M (g): 14 [10]**	--	--	TI

Jeep/90mm RCL Platoon
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
mp	8w	0	G (b/b): 9*	HE (b/b): L	--	II

Jeep/RBS-56 BILL ATGM Platoon
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
mp	8w	0	*M (a): 10^ [6]**	--	--	TI

Jeep/Bantam ATGM Platoon
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
mp	8w	0	*M (b): 9 [6]**	--	--	II

Artillery

Bandkanon 1A 155mm SP Howitzer Battery
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
sb	6t	1	--	HE (b): H --	HE: H [50]

FH-77 155mm Towed Howitzer Battery
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
mb	8lw	0/-2	G (b/b): 10*	HE (b): H	HE: H [48]

Type 4140 105mm Towed Howitzer Battery
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
mb	8lw	0/-2	G (b/b): 8*	HE (b): M	HE: M [30]

120mm Towed Mortar Battery (truck)
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
mb	8w	0/-2 for truck-towed battery	--	--	HE: H [16]

81mm Mortar Battery
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
lb	2f or 8w	0	--	--	HE: L [10]

Anti-Aircraft

RBS-70 AA Missile Battery (truck-mounted)
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
mp	8w	0	--	--	--	AA Missile: (a) [10]

20mm AA Gun Battery, towed
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
mb	8w	0/-2	G (b/b): 1	HW: 2 [6]	--	AA Gun (b/b): 2 [6]

40mm Bofors Gun Battery, towed
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
mb	8w	0/-2	G (b/b): 1	HW: 2 [8]	--	AA Gun (b/b): 2 [8]

Aircraft

Saab SK-60 Attack Aircraft Flight
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
mp	A	0/0	--	HW: 2	HE: VH (-2)

AJ-35 Draken Attack Aircraft Flight
Size	Move	Protection	AT	AP	Indirect	Special
mp	A	0/1	G: 3	HW: 2	HE: VH (+1)

Mike J.
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