Swedish Air Force The Swedish Air Force ( Swedish : " Flygvapnet " ) is the air force branch of the Swedish Armed Forces . 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 four to seven 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 power s . By 1945 the Swedish Air Force had over 800 combat - ready aircraft , including 15 fighter divisions . A major problem for the Swedish Air Force during World War II 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 . 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 - 51 D Mustangs , De Havilland Mosquito NF . 19 night fighters and de Havilland Vampire s , and supported the development of top performance domestic models . When the Saab 29 Tunnan fighter was introduced around 1950 , Sweden suddenly had planes that were equal to the best of the Royal Air Force , the Soviet Union ' s VVS , and the U . S . Air Force . During the 1950s the air force started to build road bases after an idea taken from Germany . Built under the BASE 60 distributed airfield scheme , the bases were ordinary highways constructed in such a way that they could also serve as landing strips . In the early eighties road number 44 was rebuilt to contain four short runways ( 17 x 800 metres ) . Along the road a large number of turn - around - sites for rearming and refueling were built . These short runways are still used today for training , landing and taking off with Gripen and Hercules as preparation for international operations under adverse conditions . 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 , War service . The Swedish Air Force has fought in three wars , the Finno - Soviet Winter War in 1939 – 40 , in the Congo Crisis , 1961 – 64 , and in the 2011 Libyan civil war . 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 F 19 and consisted of 12 Gloster Gladiator fighters and four Hawker Hart dive - bombers . Congo 1961 – 1964 . The Swedish Air Force saw combat as part of the United Nations peace - keeping mission ONUC during the Congo Crisis in 1961 to 1964 . It established a separate air wing , F 22 , equipped with a dozen semi - obsolete Saab 29 Tunnan s , which performed well under the rugged conditions in central Africa . The secessionist adversaries possessed only a small number of aircraft with poor combat capabilities , e . g . Fouga Magister trainers . 1990s – restructuring . The end of the Cold War saw the Swedish Armed Forces undergo a massive restructuring process . During that time , several air bases were deemed unnecessary and closed . In 1994 the air force had over 400 fighters , by 2005 the number had sunk to fewer than 150 . Libya 2011 . On March 29 , 2011 , the Swedish prime minister announced that eight Saab JAS 39 Gripens would be deployed to support the UN - mandated no - fly zone over Libya . The announcement was made in response to a request by NATO for assistance . The Swedish fighters were limited to supporting the no - fly zone and were not authorized to engage in ground attack sorties . The deployment was approved by the Swedish Riksdag on April 1 , 2011 and the first jets departed for Libya on April 2 . Accompanying the fighters was a C - 130 Hercules for mid - air refueling . Future . The Swedish Air Force is today being adapted to new future tasks . With the collapse of the only military threat , the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War , budget cuts have been made in the Swedish armed forces . The Swedish government have also decided to cut back on the Air Force and its fighters . Of the now 130 fighter planes in service about 100 will form the future Swedish Air Force . Some orders have been made on the helicopter side and about 40 new units will join the air force in the next coming years . Saab AB has also joined the primarily French project for the unmanned future stealth plane Dassault nEUROn . In 2008 as well in 2010 the Swedish armed forces wanted to retire even more fighters and close air - bases to relocate money to other branches . However , because of negative response from the public and pressure from the Swedish government , no cuts have so far been made . Defense Minister Sten Tolgfors responded to the Russian purchase of Mistral - class amphibious assault ship s by saying that the Swedish Air Force would need " sea targeting capabilities " . In 2013 the USMC introduced Swedish helicopter units to the Forward air control airborne mission for better air - ground coordination . Organization . Fighter units . There are three wings of fighters : Helicopter units . The aviation units that were formerly under the Swedish Army ( " " Arméflyget " " ) and the Swedish Navy ( " " Marinflyget " " ) have been merged with the helicopter units of the Air Force to form the single Helicopter Wing ( " Helikopterflottiljen " , abbreviated " Hkpflj " ) for the entire Armed Forces . The wing has been placed under the authority of the Air Force and consists of : Aircraft . The Air Force 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 short runway requirement , advanced data link equipment , and canard delta design with lateral instability and fly - by - wire . Sweden originally ordered 204 Gripen aircraft . Out of these 134 remain in service in the Air Force today and an additional 28 are leased to the Czech and Hungarian Air Force ( 14 each ) , with an option to acquire them when the lease period expires . Furthermore , 12 aircraft were sold to the Royal Thai Air Force .