The Armed Forces retain a hold on the imagination of the Swedish public. And that's despite a fall in the number of people with a direct relationship to the Armed Forces and the fact that garrison towns are today few and far between.

A Swedish patrol came under, and returned, fire for two consecutive nights. Only a week previously the Swedish contingent had been the target of a bomb attack.¬ All three incidents had happy endings – i.e., no Swedish soldiers were injured.
The government now wishes to make it possible to make
further reinforcements to the Swedish presence in Afghanistan. Anders Lindström, the general bearing ultimate responsibility for international missions, agrees that Sweden should play a larger role – but he also talks about the risks involved.

During the Spring of 2009 the Swedish parliament is due to pass a new resolution on security and defence policy.
  The proposed bill is partly based on the report of the Swedish Defence Commission, "Defence in Use", published on the 13th June this year.  The report, describing a broadly based political consensus as regards the ways in which the Armed Forces should be developed and put to use, is endorsed by all the parties represented in the Swedish parliament.
  This article, authored by Bernt Grundevik, Inspector General of the Army, gives an account of the consequences for Sweden's ground forces of the political objectives contained in the Defence Commission report.

Head of development for the Armed Forces, Major General Michael Moore, has had enough of a complicated context being left unexplained.

As a soldier's immediate superior the role of the platoon commander is one of the Armed Forces most important in passing on cultural values. If recruitment to the the new mission oriented Armed Forces is to be successful, it will begin on the parade ground. It's all about the platoon commanders leadership skills and ability to convey the core values of the Armed Forces – and this was the message of this year's seminar for platoon commanders.

Peter Norén from F 17 in Såtenäs and Christoffer Lennings from Amf 1, Berga, were two of the platoon commanders at this year's conference in Vellinge, located to the south of Stockholm. They went home with shared experiences, broken barriers and good ideas.

The Armed Forces have been buffeted by the storms of changing times this autumn. Events in Georgia were a reminder of the uncertainty that characterises our part of the world, and, almost at the same time, the four party coalition in government signalled a change in policy approach, as a result delaying the presentation of the new government bill on defence. Revisions to the previous budget estimates followed soon after. Taken together, a picture emerges of a situation in which many factors are in play simultaneously; and, furthermore, the content of the aims and tasks assigned to the Armed Forces in the future, from 2010, remains unknown, depending as it does on decisions yet to be taken.