21-year-old Adam Blomberg from Marstrand is standing in the rain waiting for orders.

It is a final exercise at Älvsborg's amphibious regiment and in just a few weeks they will be finished with their training and ready to be deployed. 

- You notice that things happen around the world and that you are needed.

When the war is far away, peace may be obvious, but when the war is so close, the individual soldier is needed again, says Adam Blomberg.

May require more

Just over 5,800 people enlisted in the conscription last year.

In 2020, a decision was made to increase the number to 8,000 people annually from 2025. But the need is probably greater than that.  

- It is reasonable that further withdrawals take place, but there are no such decisions made exactly how the organization should be designed and thus not how much personnel will be required, says Michael Claesson, operations manager at the Armed Forces.  

Since Adam Blomberg and the other conscripts moved in almost a year ago, the world has changed drastically.

Russia has invaded Ukraine and Sweden has applied to join NATO.

When they muck in a few weeks, it is to the most difficult security policy situation since World War II.

That is the opinion of Jan Hallenberg.  

- So this is a very uncertain situation, both in the near term and in the long term, says Jan Hallenberg, research leader at the Foreign Policy Institute.

Impact on NATO membership

If Sweden joins NATO, more Swedish soldiers will serve abroad.

There is also room in the law to send conscripts who have completed basic training on NATO operations in other countries.

However, this requires political decisions.  

- Since you plan defense together, you also have joint readings.

But note that it includes essentially employed military personnel and should not be directly translated against the use of conscripts in this type of task, says Michael Claesson. 

Adam Blomberg has applied for a job in the Armed Forces.

But at the same time admits that there is some concern about the future, not least among his relatives. 

- It is a small sore wound in them, to have someone who works here.

But I'm just trying to be clear and tell you the way it is, the way I look at it. 

During the exercise, we pass his parents' home. 

- There is a clearer purpose when you are on your own land, when you see your own house, it is a completely different thing from being in another country.

But then you also fight for something, for their loved ones, says Adam Blomberg. 

- You do that job whether you fight here or elsewhere.