Financial crisis rocks Swedish military



Published: 12 Jan 08 10:35 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/9635/
Sweden's armed forces are mulling extensive cutbacks as a deepening economic crisis looms in 2008.

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The cost of running the Armed Forces is expected to exceed the military budget by between 1 and 1.5 billion kronor, Svenska Dagbladet reports.

Lietenant General Jan Salestrand confirmed that the military was experiencing considerable financial problems.

"I want to underline the fact that we are sticking to our allocation and looking after our finances - but this also means that we have to put measures in place to reduce our ambitions and operations," he told Svenska Dagbladet.

The military is weighing up drastic action in its bid to balance the books, with new directives scheduled to be sent out to its various units next week.

Full story
http://www.thelocal.se/9635/20080112/

And with Russia getting noisy they can't really afford to put their guard down. Just looking strong in itself is a good deterence.