“Sweden is In The Midst of A Huge Buildup”

For 200 years, the nation of Sweden kept its position of neutrality. But the 2014 invasion of Crimea by neighboring Russia and the outbreak of war on Ukraine in 2022 made the homeland of Alfred Noble's dynamite and the Noble Peace Prize think twice and in 2024 it officially joined NATO.

Four years earlier, Elbit Systems Sweden was officially established and joined the defense industry market with the aim of changing the game within the defense-digitization arena. A few short years later, Elbit Systems Sweden is an integration partner to the Swedish Armed Forces, delivering the fundamental systems and integration capabilities needed to digitize and elevate its capabilities.

"There has been relatively little investment in the military, especially in ground forces over the past 30 years and now Sweden is in the midst of a huge buildup," said Tobias Wennberg, CEO of Elbit Sweden. "We strive to be a disruptive player locally. What we are doing here is uncommon, we've built up local capabilities and are seen as a fast-acting local start-up within the global giants."
 

The need for resistance

As the continent of Europe faces growing uncertainties, war and threats, since 2018 Sweden has slowly but surely begun to increase its defense spendings, aiming to build a strong resistant defense.

Wennberg saw this increase as an opportunity and secured notable contracts with the Swedish military such as providing it with the E-LynX™ Soldier Defined Radio (SDR) in 2017. Three years later, in 2020, Elbit Systems Sweden was officially established with four main focuses: Communication, Networking, Electronic Warfare and to be part of the overall digitization of the Swedish Armed Forces.

An important component of building a strong resistant military today is a rapid, secure and capable tactical network. A network capable of housing and transmitting the information that sensors, weapon systems and soldiers collect in real-time. Benefits of a tactical network such as situational awareness and the capability to make decisions quicker than your adversary can help to erase certain disadvantages in form of numbers. Two tanks can become more effective than three when they’re connected and synchronized.

"Being a relatively small country, the capability of defending oneself against larger enemies is of grave importance. Hence, being able to increase the operational effect of every unit connected to the tactical network can create an advantage against less technologically advanced adversaries," Wennberg said.

Delivering Speed and Certainty 

In the four years since its establishment, Elbit Systems Sweden became the digitalization partner to the Swedish Armed Forces, a long-term commitment to digitize the command-and-control system of the Swedish Army.

As part of the partnership, the company is installing the E-LynX SDR in the Army’s different platforms and integrating it with numerous third-party systems aiming to create an advantage of connectivity. The project, LSS Mark, is aimed at reducing decision-making time and ensuring the transmission of the correct information to the right node at the right time. The fundamental idea of the system is to create an advantage based on speed.

"It’s Sweden’s first big step towards a modern defence-digitization and we’re very proud to be part of it," Wennberg said, adding that "the LSS Mark project is currently one of our main growth engines, we’ve more than doubled in size from last year. We hope to keep a similar growth rate for the coming year, aiming to continue developing our local capabilities within the digitization-arena."

Besides the LSS Mark project, Elbit Systems Sweden is delivering an advanced featherweight SATCOM trailer, tactical shelters to relay the tactical network over long distances; Combat Management Systems for the Royal Navy’s mine countermeasure ships and sea surveillance systems monitoring Sweden’s territorial waters and economic zone.

"The common thread across all our projects is digitization that links units together and improves effectiveness, with the goal of enabling Sweden to wring out more from less, less units with more power," Wennberg said.

And with projects expected to last at least a decade, the company is hoping to grow its number of employees and possibly expand to new facilities to allow for increased in-house engineering and software development.

"I want us to be something different from other European defense companies. We are trying to do something special in Sweden," Wennberg said. "Our current growth and establishment present an opportunity to be part of something potentially big and exciting for those working with us, forming the foundation of a full force digitization house in a rapidly changing industry."