Every time the Swedish Air Force has gone into action
Most of the Air Force’s action in its first century came as volunteers, under the United Nations or alongside NATO. Where a consolidated sortie or loss figure exists in the official record it is given here; where accounts disagree, the range is shown and the disagreement named. Blank cells are blank because no figure could be verified, not because the fighting was small.
From Finnish Lapland in 1940 to NATO air policing today.
| Conflicto | Años | Contra | Avión principal | Salidas | Avión perdido | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Swedish volunteer wing in the Winter WarF 19 in Finnish LaplandSwedish Voluntary Air Wing (F 19) | 1940 | Unión Soviética | Gloster Gladiator Mk II (J 8A), Hawker Hart (B 4) | — | — | |
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Fighter defence and dive-bombing for Finland against the Soviet Union, flown by Swedish volunteers in aircraft carrying Finnish markings. Sweden stayed officially neutral when the Soviet Union attacked Finland in November 1939, but it let volunteers go, and more than 8,000 Swedes served in the volunteer corps by the end. Its air element, F 19, took Swedish Air Force aircraft with it and arrived in Finnish Lapland on 10 January 1940 — twelve Gloster Gladiator Mk IIs and four Hawker Harts, the backbone of a force some sources put at 25 aircraft once transports and liaison machines are counted. The aircraft flew with Finnish national markings. The Gladiators flew as fighters and the Harts as dive bombers, a technique Swedish crews had developed on the type in the 1930s despite the doubts of its makers. The wing claimed eight Soviet aircraft in the air and four destroyed on the ground and lost two Gladiators in air combat. The pilot Anders Zachau became the first Swedish Air Force member killed in the war. At home, the Air Force was meanwhile trying to buy fighters wherever it could: 1940 brought the first Seversky J 9s from the United States and Fiat CR.42s from Italy, before Washington stopped further deliveries in October. Resultado Eight Soviet aircraft claimed in the air and four on the ground; the wing flew until the end of hostilities in March 1940. Figures for total aircraft and crew losses vary between accounts and were not confirmed in the sources checked.
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| The Catalina affairThe DC-3 and Catalina shootdownsFuerza Aérea Sueca | 1952 | Unión Soviética | Douglas DC-3 (Tp 79), Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina (Tp 47) | — | 2 | |
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A signals-intelligence flight and the search-and-rescue aircraft sent to find it were both shot down by Soviet fighters. On 13 June 1952 the Air Force DC-3 79001, named Hugin, disappeared east of Gotska Sandön on a signals-intelligence mission collecting radio and radar emissions. Three days later, on 16 June, a Tp 47 Catalina searching for it was shot down by Soviet MiG-15s; its seven crew ditched next to the West German freighter Münsterland and survived. The Soviet Union denied shooting down the DC-3 until 1991, when General Fyodor Shinkarenko admitted ordering the attack. The wreck was located by sonar at 126 metres on 10 June 2003 and raised on 19 March 2004; bullet holes confirmed a MiG-15bis attack, the cockpit clock had stopped at 11:28:40, and the remains of four of the eight men were identified by DNA. Since 13 May 2009 the DC-3 has been displayed at the Swedish Air Force Museum in Linköping, in an exhibition about secrecy, great-power politics and the families’ decades of uncertainty. Resultado The Soviet Union denied responsibility until 1991; the DC-3 was found in 2003 and raised in 2004. Four of the eight crew were identified from remains; the others were never found.
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| The UN operation in the CongoF 22 in KatangaSwedish Air Force (F 22) | 1961–1964 | Katangese secessionist forces | Saab J 29B Tunnan, Saab S 29C Tunnan | — | 1 | |
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Ground attack and reconnaissance for the United Nations operation ONUC against the Katangese secession. The Congo was the first time the Swedish Air Force itself went to war, and it did so for the United Nations. In September 1961 five J 29B Tunnans arrived as F 22, a wing created for the operation; four more J 29Bs and two S 29C photo-reconnaissance aircraft followed in 1962, for a force of about eleven. Their enemy was the secessionist government of Katanga, whose air arm had only a few Fouga Magisters and other aircraft of limited air-combat value. The Tunnans struck airfields and ground targets with their cannon and unguided rockets during the fighting around Élisabethville in December 1961 and in Operation Grandslam, from December 1962 to January 1963. They flew alongside F-86 Sabres with Ethiopian, Iranian, Italian and Filipino crews. No Tunnan was lost in action despite heavy ground fire, and their capabilities were judged exceptional. When ONUC wound up in 1964, some aircraft were destroyed at their base because they were no longer needed at home and bringing them back was judged too expensive. Resultado The Tunnans flew in ONUC’s decisive Operation Grandslam of December 1962 to January 1963; ONUC closed in June 1964. Sources differ on when Swedish flying ended: some give 1963, while the UN operation itself closed in June 1964.
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| Afghanistan (ISAF)Helicopter medical evacuationSwedish Armed Forces helicopter units | 2013 | — | Sikorsky UH-60M (Hkp 16), Aérospatiale AS332 Super Puma (Hkp 10) | — | — | |
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Medical evacuation for the NATO-led ISAF coalition with UH-60M Black Hawks and, on occasion, Super Pumas. Sweden’s air contribution in Afghanistan was not fighters but helicopters. The Hkp 10 Super Puma, the Air Force’s search-and-rescue helicopter since the late 1980s, was sent abroad on occasion, including to fly medical evacuation for coalition forces in Afghanistan. The fifteen UH-60M Black Hawks that Sweden requested in September 2010 and ordered in May 2011, with deliveries from January 2012, took over that task: they began medical evacuation flights for ISAF in March 2013, barely a year after the first arrived. The last Super Puma was retired in October 2015, leaving the task to the Black Hawks and NH90s. The Black Hawk reached full operational capability in 2017, and in 2022 the Supreme Commander announced that further H-60s would replace the NH90. The present Chief of the Air Force, Jonas Wikman, also served in the campaign as lead adviser at NATO Air Command-Afghanistan. Resultado The Black Hawk reached full operational capability in Swedish service in 2017. Start and end dates of the Super Puma deployment and the end date of the Black Hawk mission were not confirmed in the sources checked.
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| Libia: Operación Protector UnificadoFL 01 at SigonellaFuerza Aérea Sueca | 2011 | Libyan government forces | JAS 39C Gripen, Tp 84 (C-130 tanker), S 102B Korpen | 650 | 0 | |
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Enforcing the UN no-fly zone and flying tactical reconnaissance for the NATO-led operation; the Gripens did not attack ground targets. Libya was the Gripen’s first combat operation and the first time the Air Force had flown an international combat mission since the Congo. NATO asked Sweden to take part on 28 March 2011, and eight JAS 39C Gripens deployed in April to Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily, supported by a Hercules tanker and an S 102B Korpen signals-intelligence aircraft; the fighter detachment was later cut to five. The Swedish mandate allowed no attacks on ground targets, so the Gripens policed the no-fly zone and flew reconnaissance for the coalition. By October they had flown more than 650 missions. Politically it mattered as much as militarily: Sweden was the only country outside both NATO and the Arab League to take part in the no-fly zone, and it showed that a non-aligned air force could plug into a NATO air operation with little notice — exactly the interoperability that the secret Cold War preparations had anticipated and that membership would later formalise. Resultado The operation ended on 31 October 2011. Mission counts differ between accounts; the figure given is a lower bound from one source.
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| Vigilancia aérea de la OTANPoland and IcelandFuerza Aérea Sueca | 2025–2026 | — | JAS 39C/D Gripen | — | 0 | |
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Peacetime air policing and quick-reaction alert for NATO on the eastern flank and in the North Atlantic. Air policing was the first new task that NATO membership brought. Before 2024 Sweden trained with the alliance — eight Gripens took part in NATO’s exercise Trident Juncture 18 — but in air policing the relationship ran the other way: in 2013 the Swedish Air Force was unable to respond to a simulated Russian bomber attack on Stockholm, and the Baltic Air Policing patrol was called in instead. Sweden joined NATO on 7 March 2024, and the Swedish Armed Forces planned from the outset to provide fighter units for NATO air policing, covering surveillance and incident response. In March 2025 six Gripens deployed to Poland for enhanced air policing on the eastern flank. From early February to mid-March 2026 the Skaraborg Wing, F 7, flew Sweden’s first rotation over Iceland with six Gripens and about 110 personnel; Swedish fighters had trained in Iceland before membership. The deployments are small, but they reverse the 2013 picture and give the Gripen force a standing NATO role for the first time. Resultado Ongoing. The rotations and dates for Poland after March 2025 were not confirmed in the sources checked.
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No se encontraron coincidencias con esa búsqueda.
Cada cifra, verificada
- Regeringskansliet: Försvareight JAS 39 Gripens in NATO exercise Trident Juncture 18; proposal to create service staffs
- Försvarsmakten: Sweden and NATOPartnership for Peace since 1994; plans to contribute fighter units to NATO air policing
- SOU 1994:11 Om kriget kommit … Förberedelser för mottagande av militärt bistånd 1949–1969 (Neutralitetspolitikkommissionen)February 1994 report: secure links to Danish, Norwegian and US Air Force networks, runways lengthened for heavy Western aircraft, NATO-compatible identification; only a very small group knew
- Flygvapenmuseum (Swedish Air Force Museum), Linköpingmore than 300 aircraft and helicopters, about 50 on display; recovered DC-3 on show; centenary programme 2026
- Flygvapenmuseum: Utställningarexhibitions incl. Hemliga handlingar – DC-3:an som försvann; Om kriget kommer; Flygfärdig
Figures verified 2026-09-28. Back to the Swedish Air Force.