Sweden's 21-month stay in NATO's waiting room came to an end this week with long-awaited ratification of its May 2022 membership application by the Hungarian parliament.
Stockholm's accession completes NATO's expansion to 32 members, a growth prompted by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and met with repeated threats from President Vladimir Putin and his top officials.
Membership for Sweden and neighboring Finland—which joined in April 2023—has transformed NATO's security environment in northern Europe and the Arctic, adding 830 miles of frontier with Russia and drawing a NATO noose around the Baltic Sea, already referred to by some officials as a "NATO lake."
Through decades of official foreign policy neutrality—though with close NATO cooperation and European Union membership—Stockholm and Helsinki have long been preparing for Russian aggression. Now, with their abandonment of non-alignment, NATO is gaining two militaries that while relative minnows, are designed specifically to frustrate and bleed Russia.
Finland is already spending more than 2 percent of its GDP on the military, and Sweden's Defense Ministry has told Newsweek it will do so by the end of 2024.
NATO expects 18 of its members to reach the threshold by the end of 2024. The U.S. is among the leaders spending 3.4 percent of its GDP, with Poland spending more than any other ally at 3.9 percent.
Among the lowest-spending nations are Luxembourg (0.72 percent), Spain (1.26 percent), and Belgium (1.26 percent).
Neil Melvin—the director of international security at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank in London—told Newsweek: "Sweden notably brings to NATO a well-equipped army, over a hundred advanced [jet] fighters, a modern navy including five submarines, as well as a technologically advanced defense industrial base."
The extension of the alliance's Article 5 collective defense commitment across Scandinavia "is part of a transformation of northern Europe into a NATO bastion," Melvin said.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian Foreign Ministry by email to request comment.
Land Forces
Like Finland, Sweden brings a modern military to the alliance table. Its armed forces consist of only around 24,000 active personnel, supported by 11,400 reserves, and 21,000 Home Guard. From 2025, Stockholm also plans to draft 8,000 conscripts into its reserves annually, up from 6,000 currently.
Sweden's infantry units are supported by around 500 armored infantry fighting vehicles, including the modern CV-90. Stockholm sent 51 CV-90s to Ukraine in 2023 for use by Ukrainian forces.
Sweden fielded 120 German-made Leopard 2 main battle tanks as of early 2023, though Stockholm said at least "a tenth" of these were also donated to Ukraine.
Behind the front, Swedish forces can call on 26 self-propelled 155mm Archer Artillery Systems, designed to be highly mobile to avoid counterbattery fire. The Archer—eight of which have been donated to Ukraine—can set up, fire three aimed shots, and leave its firing position within 75 seconds. Its operators can also tweak the angle of fire and the number of charges to make all three shells land simultaneously.
Its longest-range shells—the American-made guided M982 Excalibur—can reach targets up to 31 miles away.
In the Air
Sweden's most significant NATO contributions are arguably its formidable air and sea forces, designed to cover the country's 2,000 miles of coastline, the Baltic Sea, and airspace stretching into the Arctic region.
Sweden has around 100 Saab JAS 39 Gripen fighter aircraft, considered one of the most versatile platforms in the Western world. The Gripen was under consideration for supply to Ukraine given it was designed with Russia in mind.
The Gripen, Justin Bronk of RUSI wrote in February 2023, "is explicitly designed to counter Russian [surface-to-air missiles] and fast jets by flying very low and having an internal electronic warfare suite, and to be easy to maintain and operate from dispersed bases with mobile teams in vehicles."
Gripens are also able to take off from and land on damaged runways and highways; another benefit that may have made the platform appealing for the Ukrainians.
Sweden fields four reconnaissance aircraft: two Gulfstream G-IV planes equipped for signals intelligence use, and two Saab 340 AEW&Cs for airborne early warning and control capabilities.
Defending from the ground, Sweden has four batteries of U.S.-made Patriot surface-to-air systems with PAC-3 interceptors ranging out to around 75 miles. Shorter-range threats can be addressed with the IRIS-T SLS, RBS 23, and RBS 70 platforms.
At Sea
Sweden will play a key role in NATO's control of the Baltic Sea, which serves the vital Russian ports of St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad.
Sweden's submarines will be especially important. The country currently has four—three Gotland-class vessels and one Södermanland-class—diesel-electric submarine. These will be augmented by two new A26 attack submarines—the Blekinge and Skåne—that are due to be launched in 2027 and 2028.
Swedish submarines are designed to operate in the shallow Baltic Sea, compared with those of larger NATO allies used in deeper waters elsewhere. This will help the alliance as it bids to keep track of Russian vessels and prevent seabed developments such as the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines and meddling with vital undersea telecommunications cables.
Other Swedish vessels include seven corvettes, eight minesweepers, one large patrol vessel, and more than a dozen smaller patrol vessels. Of these, the stealthy Visby-class corvettes are the most potent and offer significant short-range air defense capabilities.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
David Brennan is Newsweek's Diplomatic Correspondent covering world politics and conflicts from London with a focus on NATO, the European ... Read more
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