Small forces, big impact

The Swedish navy also reduced the number of its units after the end of the Cold War. However, Putin's annexation of Crimea in 2014 caused those responsible to rethink their approach.

On 18 May, the Swedish government officially submitted its application to join the NATO defence alliance. At the same time, NATO headquarters in Brussels received the application for membership from neighbouring Finland. In addition to the two Scandinavian countries, NATO itself will also benefit greatly from accession - once all hurdles have been cleared and all 30 existing NATO member states have given their approval.

Both countries bring modern and highly trained armed forces to the alliance, although their respective focal points are the land forces. The navies of both countries have been working closely together for years and are largely geared towards the shallow waters of the Baltic Sea and the defence of the Scandinavian coasts. Below we take a look at the history and equipment of the Svenska Marinen - the Royal Swedish Navy. It serves to protect around 1500 kilometres of coastline between the Skagerrak and the Gulf of Bothnia.