NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Swedish Air Force

The Swedish Air Force (Swedish: Flygvapnet, literally "Flying Weapon") is the air force branch of the Swedish Armed Forces, the military of Sweden. Image File history File links Wiki_letter_w. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1261x958, 50 KB)Coat of arms of the Swedish Air Force. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1261x958, 50 KB)Coat of arms of the Swedish Air Force. ... A modern coat of arms is derived from the medi val practice of painting designs onto the shield and outer clothing of knights to enable them to be identified in battle, and later in tournaments. ... An Air force is a military or armed service that primarily conducts aerial warfare. ... The Swedish Armed Forces, or FÃ¶rsvarsmakten, is a Government agency responsible for the peacetime operation of the armed forces of Sweden. ...

History

The Swedish Air Force was created on July 1, 1926 when the aircraft units of the Army and Navy were merged. Because of the escalating international tension during the 1930s the Air Force was reorganized and expanded from 4 to 7 squadrons. When World War II broke out in 1939 further expansion was initiated and this substantial expansion was not finished until the end of the war. Although Sweden never entered the war, a large air force was considered necessary to ward off the threat of invasion and to resist pressure through military threats from the great powers. By 1945 the Swedish Air Force had over 800 combat-ready aircraft, including 15 fighter divisions. Image File history File links Flygvapnet_roundel. ... Image File history File links Flygvapnet_roundel. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 183 days remaining. ... Year 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar). ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki TÅjÅ Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

A major problem for the Swedish Air Force during World War Two was the lack of fuel. Sweden was surrounded by countries at war and could not rely on imported oil. Instead domestic oil shales were heated to produce the needed petrol. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Oil Shale Oil shale is a general term applied to a fine-grained sedimentary rock containing enough organic material (called kerogen) to yield oil and combustible gas upon distillation. ...

Expansion during the Cold War

The Swedish air force underwent a rapid modernization from 1945. It was no longer politically acceptable to equip it with second-rate models. Instead, the air staff purchased the best it could find from abroad, e.g. P-51D Mustangs and de Havilland Vampires, and supported the development of top performance domestic models. When the SAAB Tunnan fighter was introduced around 1950, Sweden suddenly had planes that were equal to the best of the Royal Air Force, Soviet Union and the US Air Force. The North American P-51 Mustang was a successful long range fighter aircraft which set new standards of excellence and performance when it entered service in the middle years of World War II and is still regarded as one of the very best piston-engined fighters ever made. ... The de Havilland Vampire, or DH.100, was the second jet-engined aircraft commissioned into the Royal Air Force during World War II (the first being the Gloster Meteor), although it did not see combat in that conflict. ... SAAB J 29 Tunnan (The Barrel) was a Swedish fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by Saab 1950 - 1956. ...

During the 1950s the air force started to build road bases after an idea taken from Germany. The bases were ordinary highways constructed in such a way that they could also serve as landing strips. During the Cold War large amounts of money (including all that had been reserved for Swedish nuclear weapons) were spent on the Swedish Air Force and domestic airplane production. In 1957 Sweden had the world's fourth most powerful air force, with about 800 modern planes in front-line service. During the 1950s, it introduced fighters such as the Saab J 29 Tunnan, Saab A 32 Lansen and Saab J 35 Draken. // Recovering from World War II and its aftermath, the economic miracle emerged in West Germany and Italy. ... For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ... SAAB J 29 Tunnan (The Barrel) was a Swedish fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by Saab 1950 - 1956. ... The SAAB A32 Lansen (Swedish:lance) was a two-seater attack aircraft produced by SAAB from 1955 to 1960 for Flygvapnet, the Swedish air force. ... The Saab J 35 Draken (the word Draken here is referring to a Kite, but its also the same as Dragon in Swedish) or Saab 35 is a Swedish fighter aircraft manufactured by Saab between 1955 and 1974. ...

War Service

The Swedish Air Force has fought in two wars, the Finno-Soviet Winter War in 1939-40 and in the Congo Crisis 1961-64.

Finland 1940

When the Soviet Union attacked Finland in November 1939 Sweden came to its neighbour's assistance in most ways short of joining the war outright. A Swedish volunteer infantry brigade and a volunteer air squadron fought in northern Finland in January till March 1940. The squadron was designated F19 and consisted of 12 Gloster Gladiator fighters and 4 Hawker Hart dive-bombers. 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full year calendar). ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... Gloster Gladiator photographed in England in 2002 The Gloster Gladiator was a biplane fighter, used by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy, as well as a number of other air forces, during World War II. The aircraft had a top speed of around 414 km/h. ... The Hawker Hart was a two-seater biplane light-bomber of the Royal Air Force (RAF), which had a prominent role during the RAFs inter-war period. ...

Congo 1961-64

The Swedish Air Force saw combat as part of the UN peace-keeping mission ONUC during the Congo Crisis in 1961 to 1964. It established a separate air wing, F22, equipped with a dozen semi-obsolete Tunnan fighters, which performed well under the rugged conditions in central Africa. The secessionist adversaries possessed only a small number of aircraft with poor combat cababilities. This article is about the United Nations, for other uses of UN see UN (disambiguation) Official languages English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic Secretary-General Kofi Annan (since 1997) Established October 24, 1945 Member states 191 Headquarters New York City, NY, USA Official site http://www. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Combatants Congo UN troops Katanga Belgium Mercenaries The Congo Crisis (1960-1965) was a period of turmoil in the First Republic of the Congo that began with national independence from Belgium and ended with the seizing of power by Joseph Mobutu. ... SAAB J 29 Tunnan (The Barrel) was a Swedish fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by Saab 1950 - 1956. ...

Restructuring

During the 1990s the Swedish Armed Forces went through a massive restructuring process in which some air bases were closed. For the band, see 1990s (band). ... The Swedish Armed Forces, or FÃ¶rsvarsmakten, is a Government agency responsible for the peacetime operation of the armed forces of Sweden. ...

Organization

Fighter Units

Three wings of fighters: This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Skaraborg County, or Skaraborgs län, was a county of Sweden until December 31, 1998 when it was merged with the counties of Gothenburg and Bohus and Älvsborg to form the county of Västra Götaland. ... LidkÃ¶ping is a town in VÃ¤stra GÃ¶taland County, in western Sweden with about 25,000 inhabitants; with the LidkÃ¶ping Municipality having a total of 37,000. ... Blekinge is the name of a geographical region in Sweden which can refer to: Blechingia, or Blekinge - a historical Province of Sweden Blekinge County, or Blekinge län - a current County of Sweden This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share... Ronneby is a city in Blechingia, and the seat of Ronneby Municipality in Sweden. ... Norrbotten is the name of an unofficial Province (landskap) in Sweden, originally a part of VÃ¤sterbotten, which gradually grow apart from VÃ¤sterbotten after the creation of Norrbotten County in 1810. ... LuleÃ¥ ( , ), in Lule sami, Luleju, is a Swedish city in Norrbotten in northern Sweden, situated at . ...

Helicopter Units

The aviation units that formerly were under the Swedish Army ("Arméflyget") and the Royal Swedish Navy ("Marinflyget") have been merged with the helicopter units of the Air Force to form the single Helicopter Wing (Hkpflj) for the entire Armed Forces. The wing has been placed under the authority of the Air Force and consists of: Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 Ã— 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (2560 Ã— 1920 pixel, file size: 150 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Swedish Air Force... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 Ã— 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (2560 Ã— 1920 pixel, file size: 150 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Swedish Air Force... Swedish Army - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... The Swedish Navy (Swedish Marinen) is the naval branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. ...

Boden is a Municipality in Norrbotten County, in northern Sweden. ... Ã–stersund Municipality listen? is a municipality in the middle of Sweden where the city Ã–stersund is the seat with a population of 43,536. ... Uppsala (older spelling Upsala) is a Swedish City in central Sweden, located about 70 km north of Stockholm. ... Ronneby is a city in Blechingia, and the seat of Ronneby Municipality in Sweden. ... LinkÃ¶ping [ËˆlÉªnÉ•Ã¸ËpÉªÅ‹] is a city in southern Sweden, with a population of 94,298 (SCB 2001). ... Gothenburg City Airport or GÃ¶teborg City Airport (IATA: GSE, ICAO: ESGP), formerly (and still informally) known as SÃ¤ve Flygplats, is Gothenburgs second international airport located 14 kilometres north-west from the centre of Gothenburg (Swedish: ) on the island of Hisingen, BohuslÃ¤n, Sweden. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (3008x1960, 696 KB) Description See caption Date 1 Sep 2003 Source http://www. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (3008x1960, 696 KB) Description See caption Date 1 Sep 2003 Source http://www. ... Saab JAS 39C Gripen of the Czech Air Force The Saab JAS 39 Gripen (Griffin or Gryphon) is a fighter aircraft manufactured by the Swedish aerospace company Saab. ...

Aircraft

It is currently deploying the Saab Gripen for service. Gripen, designated JAS 39 Gripen - the designation JAS stands for Jakt (Air-to-Air), Attack (Air-to-Surface) and Spaning (Reconnaissance), and means every Gripen can fulfill all three mission types - is a modern multi-role fighter designed to replace Draken and Viggen. Capabilities of Gripen include a very short runway requirement, advanced data link equipment, and canard delta design with lateral instability and fly-by-wire. Saab JAS 39C Gripen of the Czech Air Force The Saab JAS 39 Gripen (Griffin or Gryphon) is a fighter aircraft manufactured by the Swedish aerospace company Saab. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The Saab J 35 Draken (the word Draken here is referring to a Kite, but its also the same as Dragon in Swedish) or Saab 35 is a Swedish fighter aircraft manufactured by Saab between 1955 and 1974. ... The Saab Viggen (The Thunderbolt) or Saab 37 is a Swedish fighter aircraft manufactured between 1970 and 1990 to replace the Saab J 35 Draken (The Kite or Dragon). ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... The delta-wing is a wing planform in the form of a triangle, named after the Greek uppercase delta (letter) which is a triangle (Î”). Its use in the so called tailless delta, i. ... A flight control system consists of the flight control surfaces, the respective cockpit controls, connecting linkage, and necessary operating mechanisms to control aircraft in flight The basic fundamentals of aircraft controls has been explained in aeronautics. ...