A combat vehicle and airplane on Gotland.
PHOTO: BEZHAV MAHMOUD/SWEDISH ARMED FORCES/TT NEWS/REUTERS
Wall Street Journal: Russian Aggression Spurs Neighbors to Rebuild Defenses
Sweden has overturned decades of its own defense and foreign policy to strengthen its military and tighten ties with the U.S.
Wooden targets hide among the pine trees at the Gotland island army firing range, silhouettes depicting foreign invaders, their faces twisted with malice. They bear no unit insignia, no flag patches. But the Swedish army recruits peppering the targets with machine-gun fire this fall knew exactly who the enemy was: Russia’s 76th Guards Air Assault Division.
With Russia’s foreign policy growing more assertive over the past decade under President Vladimir Putin, the Swedes are bulking up defenses on Gotland.
Its army expects that in the opening moments of a Russian invasion, airborne soldiers from the 76th Guards, based across the Baltic Sea, would likely parachute onto Gotland. Both sides know that whoever controls the island controls naval traffic through the southern Baltic.
“We will never surrender,” said Daniel Martell, sergeant major of Sweden’s Gotland Regiment. “That’s the message we’re sending.”
The Cold War is back on in the frigid North.
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WNU Editor: Sweden has significantly increased its defense spending .... Sweden ups defense budget 40% due to regional tensions (Defense News/AP). But it is still a small military .... 22,500 active military personnel, 34,500 reservists (Wikipedia).
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