Sweden

Overview
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 Bofors, Saab, FFV, and Hagglunds 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, Sweden 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 Warsaw Pact. 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 (most of which may have been due to poor navigation rather than intent). 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.



Tactics
Swedish force is strongly oriented towards defence, but that shouldn't prevent the player from adopting a more aggressive stance if situation dictates so.

Units
Mainstay armor force is formed by Centurion tank, which is available in two variants. First version is Stridsvagn 101, a basic Centurion which have good 105mm L7 gun, but very slow speed and armor is somewhat insufficient for the late Cold War period. Second version is improved Stridsvagn 104, with better engine and ERA tiles. Third available tank is unique Stridsvagn 103, also known unofficially as the S-Tank, unconventional turretless design with a fixed longer L/62 105mm gun traversed by engaging the tracks and elevated by adjusting the hull suspension. It posses the automatic loader, but the lack of a turret meaning that in an attack, the tank could not be able to react as quickly as a turreted tank. Despite this small drawbacks, it is an ultimate defensive vehicle, and very likely most cost-effective tank in the game.

Most common armored personnel carrier is a Pbv 302. This is a very versatile vehicle, with great speed, mobility and decent armament. It can be used to quickly move infantry into covered areas, where they can ambush enemy AFVs with abundance of AT weapons they carry. Another APC is SDKP m/42, an obsolete vehicle of World War Two legacy, which is substantially an armoured truck.

There are several support units. ATGMs are available ranging from obsolete and inefficient Bantam missile to advanced top-attack Bill-1 missile. Another interesting feature is RBS 70. This is a guided anti-air missile, which is very fast but it requires a constant lock on target until impact. ITOW and RBS 70 units are also available as self-propelled mounts, but those are relatively slow. Therefore any assault needs to be carefully planned and organised. An exception is Ikv-91, versatile, fast tank destroyer than can escort, for example, Pbv 302.

Swedish units are severely handicapped when fighting at night, because they lack thermals or infrared systems. A lot of flares have to be used to illuminate the battlefield.

Air support lacks cluster bombs (artillery too lacks DPICM), so armor concentration are harder to disperse. However, AJ 37 Viggen posses a very interesting weapon: AGM-65 Maverick. AGM-65 Maverick is an air-to-surface tactical missile (AGM) designed for close air support. Once locked and fired, it will hit it's designated target even if aircraft have aborted the mission or left the map. It is a precious asset that should be used for high priority targets. Its stand-off capability makes it ideal for targeting enemy air-defence systems.