Månad: maj 2025

Utskottet föreslår att riksdagen lägger skrivelsen och redogörelsen till handlingarna. Utskottet har utifrån motionsyrkandenas innehåll valt att behandla tre områden i sitt betänkande. Dessa områden är nordiskt samarbete, Arktis och Barentsregionen samt utrikespolitik, säkerhetspolitik och krisberedskap. Utskottet föreslår ett tillkännagivande till regeringen med anledning av motionsyrkanden om en nordisk försvars- och säkerhetspolitisk kommission. Utskottet anser att regeringen ska verka för att det tillsätts en nordisk försvars- och säkerhetspolitisk kommission. Utskottet föreslår att riksdagen avslår övriga motionsyrkanden. I betänkandet finns nio reservationer (S, SD, V, C, MP) och två särskilda yttranden (SD, C). […]

Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defence for Aviation Development Oleksandr Kozenko met with a Swedish delegation led by Thomas Lindén, Director for Ukraine Affairs at Saab, on May 23, 2025. The discussions centered on modernizing Ukraine’s aging fleet of Soviet-era aircraft and exploring the potential transfer of advanced Swedish aviation platforms.

A primary focus of the talks was the integration of advanced Swedish avionics into Ukraine’s existing aircraft. This includes the incorporation of modern radar systems, defensive technologies, and electronic warfare countermeasures. Such upgrades aim to enhance Ukraine’s air force’s operational effectiveness and survivability in ongoing combat scenarios.

“Ukrainian-Swedish cooperation in this area will be mutually beneficial, as Ukraine will enhance the capabilities of its aircraft, while Sweden will gain insights from the combat experience gained through their deployment,” commented Kozenko. Läs artikel

For years, I have taken every opportunity to urge the European Union and its member states to invest more in defense. When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I repeatedly asked (as a member of the European Parliament) what further proof we would need to recognize the threats facing all of Europe. What would we – as Europeans – do if our security was threatened while our closest ally, the United States, was otherwise engaged?

Today, we confront that very situation. US officials are openly stating that they do not intend to devote most of their time or resources to dealing with what they deem European issues. According to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the US has ”other priorities to focus on.” […]

Deterring Russia is not beyond our means. We don’t need to match US military capabilities; rather, we just need enough to force Putin to reconsider his chances of winning in a confrontation with a united European community of democratic nation-states.

The people of Europe are clearly demanding that we develop a revitalized European defense posture. According to the European Commission, 71% of EU citizens believe that the bloc must strengthen its ability to produce military equipment, while 77% support a common defense and security policy. This gives European leaders a mandate to think and act boldly. […]

Yes, boosting European defense capabilities while supporting Ukraine will cost money. Since the start of Russia’s war of aggression, the EU and its member states have provided more than $165 billion in support for Ukraine and its people. That is a significant amount, but it is still less than 1% of the combined GDP of the EU’s member countries (some $19 trillion). We can certainly do more. Läs artikel

Vice President JD Vance warned about the end of an ”era of uncontested U.S. dominance” during his commencement speech at the Naval Academy on Friday.

Vance’s speech underscores the new approach to foreign policy embraced by the Trump administration. The perspective of Vance and President Donald Trump could have major implications for the United States’ foreign policy over the next four years and potentially beyond, as their perspective could reshape the Republican Party’s approach to global affairs.

One foreign policy expert told Newsweek the speech may be the ”clearest articulation” of the administration’s foreign policy doctrine. […]

He said that the U.S. was a ”superpower without any peer” for a brief time following the collapse of the Soviet Union, but the global stage has since changed.

”The era of uncontested U.S. dominance is over. Today we face serious threats in China, Russia and other nations determined to beat us in every single domain—from spectrum to low earth orbit to supply chains to even our communication infrastructure,” Vance said. Läs artikel

The United States and China are not the only nations racing to build sixth-generation fighter programs. While Washington’s Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) family of systems and China’s J-36 fighter prototype continue to monopolize media headlines, other sixth-gen concepts have come to fruition in recent years. Swedish defense firm Saab, maker of the infamous JAS 39 Gripen platform, presented its own ideas for a next-gen crewed fighter and accompanying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) last year. Featured on a Swedish outlet, the futuristic renderings were discussed by the head of Advanced Programs at Saab, Peter Nilson. The conversation was published in part by the @GripenNews X handle, noting the “overall vision of multiple air system components sharing DNA.”

Back in 2019, Sweden joined the British sixth-generation BAE Systems Tempest project alongside Italy and later Japan. The manned next-generation multirole fighter collaboration is expected to embark on its first flight later in the decade, but without Sweden’s participation. Global Defense News reported in 2023 that Stockholm dropped out of the project. Shortly after this announcement was made, Saab reported that it had received an order for Swedish future fighter concept studies that “includes conceptual studies of manned and unmanned solutions in a system of system perspective, technology development, and demonstrations.” It appears Sweden is more interested in looking domestically in order to field a sixth-gen fighter program instead. Läs artikel

På fredagen meddelade Försvarsministeriet att två ryska jaktplan kränkte finskt luftrum utanför Borgå.

– Det är en misstänkt luftrumskränkning där ryska jaktplan har kränkt finskt luftrum. Utredningen pågår och vi kommenterar inte mer i nuläget, säger försvarsminister Antti Häkkänen (Saml) i en intervju i Yles tv-program Morgonettan (Ykkösaamu).

Häkkänen säger att det finns tecken på att Ryssland har ökat sin militära närvaro i Östersjöområdet och att spänningarna har ökat. Han tillägger att Finland övervakar den territoriella integriteten, tillsammans med allierade. […]

Han tillägger att Finland har full kapacitet att övervaka landets territoriella integritet och har effektiv och högklassig luft- och sjöövervakning, också på Finska viken.

– Vi samarbetar dessutom mycket nära alla Natoallierade. Det finns ingen anledning till panik. Sådana här spänningar har funnits även tidigare i historien. Vi kan ändå ta det lugnt, säger Häkkänen.

Han betonar att situationen är helt under kontroll.

Satellitbilder visar att Ryssland bygger upp en stor militär koncentration vid östgränsen. Det har nyligen väckt uppmärksamhet till exempel i medier i Storbritannien, USA och Sverige. […]

– Vi har inga rosenskimrande drömmar om hur illa Ryssland skulle kunna vara i värsta fall, tyvärr. Med alla dessa arrangemang vi gör nu syftar vi till att Finland, tillsammans med alliansen, mycket starkt står för sitt eget försvar och att det inte ska uppstå några missförstånd om att man kan komma hit.[…]

– Vi förbereder oss inte på småsaker, utan på att vi vid behov klarar oss och kan försvara oss tillsammans med alliansen även i ett hårt högintensivt krig. Det är en ledande princip. Läs artikel

[…] The launch on May 22 from submerged position in the Barents Sea will pave the way for full deployment of the submarine during 2025, according to the Droxford Maritime substack feed.

Submarines of the Yasen-M class has eight vertical launch tubes that can be armed with Oniks and Kalibr cruise missiles, but it is unclear if the ”Arkhangelsk” can be armed with the Tsirkon missile.

The Northern Fleet’s newspaper Na Strazhe Zapolyare reports that the distance from launch to impact ”exceeded 600 kilometres”. That information, which is a word-by-word copy from a Defense Ministry press statement, is not confirmed by independent sources.

However, the military message is clear: If the launch had happened in the opposite direction, from north of Murmansk and 600 kilometres west, the missile would hit targets in the Bear Gap, the strategic important waters where between Svalbard and North Cape where the shallow Barents Sea meets the deeper Norwegian Sea.

Läs artikel