Swedish underground hangars, photos

Urban Fredriksson
Suitable targets included embarkation ports, massed troop concentrations,
depots and bridges. To stop and break up an expected 8 or 9 Soviet
divisions marching through Finland, 50 bombs were calculated to be
necessary.

Depending on where on Swedish territory the weapons were to be used,
between 900 and 35 000 civilian casualities were estimated for each
explosion.

On _Swedish_ territory? A reason why Finland wasn't entirely
happy g with the Swedish nuclear weapon plans was that at
it was seen that the weapons would have been targeted for
Finnish territory. Perhaps somewhat like the conserns in
West Germany about the French tac nukes located in France
which didn't have the range to overfly West Germany.

I have difficulty in understanding what the Swedish nuclear
doctrine would have looked liked. Surely the Soviets would
have responded going nuclear too? Sweden with a limited
nuber of tac nukes wouldn't have had that much of a
deterrance (in cold war terms) against an escalation to
a strategic exchange?

Moreover 50 tac nukes needed to stop a mere 8 or 9 Soviet
divisions? Huh? Heck, the Finnish army would have had them
for breakfst, using conventional weapons, just like it did a
few decades earlier g. Uhm, well...

Btw, about the A 36 thread, 'A' stands for attack, and
it's obviously an attack plane rather than a bomber.

M *@*.* wrote:

Moreover 50 tac nukes needed to stop a mere 8 or 9 Soviet
divisions? Huh? Heck, the Finnish army would have had them
for breakfst, using conventional weapons, just like it did a
few decades earlier g. Uhm, well...

From late 40's to the late 60's it would have been other way
around. Army had not had practically any new equipment
since the end of the war, and for the Air Force and Navy was
about as bad.

For behalf of the Swedes, tactical nukes were the
buzzword of the 50's and early 60's, much like "information warfare"
or "transformation of warfare " are today. It was expected
that they would be used from day one onwards. Every country,
even Finland, hurrily modified their fighting doctrines and
organizations in order to meet this new threat. Those small
countries which had resources, like Sweden and Switzerland,
were trying to develop their own weapons.

This reorganization of armed forces was probably taken into
extreme by Americans in the early 60's, and later by the
French in late 60's. Aviation content of this post is that
most of the strike aircraft of period were principally meant
for nuclear weapons delivery.

Motto:
"There is no such thing as mystical radiation sickness"
(quoted from memory) "Atomic Weapons in Land Combat" (1952)


terveisin,
jukka raustia


--
"Päinvastoin, olisi nähtävä, että Suomen turvallisuus _kaikissa tilanteissa_
nojautuu olennaisesti siihen, että tarpeen vaatiessa Suomi voi tukeutua
Neuvostoliiton apuun koskemattomuutensa säilyttämiseksi."
-s. 57, Kaksiteräinen miekka - 70-luvun puolustuspolitiikkaa"
Jaakko Blomberg, Pentti Joenniemi, Helsinki 1971.

Just to let you know Urban- I appreciated all the information you
supplied. However, for historical accuracy and general curiosity I
contacted Saab directly and am waiting for them to send me some info
on the A36, including any possible configuration drawings of the Surte
bomb. I'm sure Saab will fill me in on exactly what color scheme/camo
of the aircraft would have been, the units operating it, the length
and width of the bomb bay, and the size of the nuke carried. I was
going to try Bofors regarding the bomb but I'm not sure they did any
design studies at all. Bofors would have manufactured key components
of the bomb once the design was set but all I have is speculation
right now.
I thought that I would mention one man in Sweden who e-mailed me to
tell me how the government is still lying to the people and has plans
for rapid assembly of a specific type of nuclear weapon based on a FSU
design. Have you heard anything about that lately? Sweden has bought
HPM weapons from Russia and tested them (out of concern over the
threat to the Gripen) but I've never heard of Sweden offering to buy a
nuclear design from them.
Anyway, thanks for the info... now I have to wait to hear from Saab.
When I do I'll post any interesting information.

Rob