The Defence District Commander ( sv, Försvarsområdesbefälhavare, Fobef) within the

Swedish Armed Forces The Swedish Armed Forces ( sv, Försvarsmakten, "the Defense Force") is the government agency that forms the armed forces of Sweden, tasked with the defense of the country as well as with promoting Sweden's wider interests, supporting internati ...

, was a senior

commanding officer The commanding officer (CO) or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitu ...

, who led forces in a geographical/military territorial district, or within a specific area of responsibility. The post was created in 1942 in connection with the Defence Act of 1942 and was terminated in 2000 through the Defence Act of 2000.

History

In Sweden, the Defence District Commander was a military authority in the Total Defence (''Totalförsvaret'') at a lower regional level, as well as the position of head of this authority. The Defence District Commander was essentially the commander of a

defence district A defence district ( sv, Försvarsområde, Fo) was a military subdivision of the Swedish Armed Forces created in 1914. It was a lower regional level subdivision, usually corresponding to a Swedish county. The commander of a defence district was t ...

, and in turn was subordinated to a Commanding General of Military Command (''Militärbefälhavare'', MB). Within each defence district, which was a geographical part of a

military district Military districts (also called military regions) are formations of a state's armed forces (often of the Army) which are responsible for a certain area of territory. They are often more responsible for administrative than operational matters, and ...

, and broadly geographically aligned with the Swedish counties, the Swedish government appointed a Defence District Commander. The positions were at the Senior Colonel/

Senior Captain Senior captain is a rank which is used in some countries' armed forces, navies, merchant marines, civil aviation and in the airline industry. Army In some armies of the world, the senior captain is a rank between a regular captain and a majo ...

level. The Defence District Commander's position was created in 1942 through the Defence Act of 1942. The task of the Defence District Commander (with the support of the Defence District Staff) was to, under the Commanding General of Military Command, direct the territorial operations within his military district. In the military district, the Defence District Commander carried out coordination with the civilian parts of the Total Defence. Through the so-called OLLI reform (''OLLI-reformen'') that was carried out within the

from 1973 to 1975, the military districts came to be amalgamated with a regiment, which came to be called Defence District Regiment (''Försvarsområdesregemente''). The amalgamation meant that the regimental commander, then acting as the Defence District Commander, was able to coordinate the mobilization of brigades and military district units. The responsibility for mobilization and

materiel Materiel (; ) refers to supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain management, and typically supplies and equipment in a commercial supply chain context. In a military context, the term ''materiel'' refers either to the specifi ...

in the entire military district was transferred to the Defence District Regiment, which led to better conditions for coordinated war planning in the defence district. As the Swedish Armed Forces became a unified

government agency A government or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an administrati ...

on 1 July 1994, the Defence District Commander ceased to be its own authority, but remained as a position with the same function. The position was terminated in 2000 through the Defence Act of 2000.

Footnotes

References

Notes

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Web

*{{cite web , url=http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a347565.pdf , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170220132613/http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a347565.pdf , publisher=

Foreign Broadcast Information Service The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) was an open source intelligence component of the Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Science and Technology. It monitored, translated, and disseminated within the U.S. government openly a ...

, work=

United States Joint Publications Research Service The Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS) was a United States government defense-funded organization that was absorbed into the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) but its funding and personnel did not transfer. For all practical purp ...

, title=Reference Aid Swedish–English Glossary of Military and Technical Acronyms and Abbreviations , first=Thomas W. Jr., last=Appich , date=22 July 1988 , archive-date=20 February 2017 , url-status=live , access-date=20 March 2020 Military appointments of Sweden