Sweden’s armed forces will operate only during office hours for the rest of the year to cut costs, military headquarters said on Friday. They will also cut fighter plane patrols to a minimum, keep navy ships in port, mothball armored vehicles and stop using large caliber live ammunition during exercises. The center-left Social Democratic government has told the military to cut spending by 450 million crowns ($54.89 million) this year as part of an overall effort to keep the budget from falling into deficit. Militarily non-aligned Sweden spends just over 40 billion crowns per year on defense, or some 1.6 percent of gross domestic product. A parliamentary defense commission said in a recent report that the likelihood of Sweden facing a military threat in the foreseeable future was very small.
It’s not like you were going to use it anyway. |