The Quest for Relevant Air Power

swedish Air Force │ 321
from ground-based Stric C2 posts, with the recognised air picture
being generated on the ground. 223 The SwAF operated a total of six
S 100 Argus airborne early warning aircraft. 224
Yet, given Sweden’s fundamental strategic reorientation in the
late 1990s and the changing security environment in the Baltic in
the ensuing years, the Flygvapnet 2000 concept had to be adapted.
With the thrust towards out-of-area operations, it was discussed
in 2006 whether to put four of the SwAF’s Saab S 100 Arguses up
for sale and to upgrade the two remaining aircraft to airborne
early warning and control aircraft with permanently installed operator
workstations and a Link-16 data link. This allows the upgraded
Argus to operate outside the country’s national air defence
ground environment and to be deployed on multinational operations.
225 By mid-2009, two aircraft, designated S 100B Argus or
ASC 890 Erieye, had been upgraded and handed over to the SwAF,
with the remainder of the original S 100 Arguses progressively
sold abroad or decommissioned. 226 This development again shows
Sweden’s reorientation. While two advanced and NATO interoperable
airborne early warning aircraft do not allow the country
to maintain 24/7 surveillance of its airspace over an extended period
of time, they provide a key capability in multinational operations.
In this regard, the 2009 government bill also put a premium
upon interoperability in regional defence scenarios. 227 Since these
scenarios conceived limited and rapidly unfolding military crises
of short duration, a fleet of two airborne surveillance and control
aircraft might have been deemed sufficient. 228
To increase the situational awareness of its combat pilots, the
SwAF was amongst the pioneers of data links. Already during the
1960s, the first Swedish combat aircraft were equipped with a
simple ground-to-air data exchange system. In the 1980s, more
advanced links were introduced in the JA 37 air defence Viggen
fleet. 229 Hence, the SwAF could draw upon a pool of experience,
when network-centric or network-based approaches came to the
fore in the post–Cold War era. Yet given Sweden’s legacy of neutrality,
a major problem that emerged in the wake of Sweden’s strategic
reorientation in the late 1990s was how to make the SwAF’s
advanced C2 structure interoperable with partner nations. 230 As
such, Sweden’s increased engagement in the ESDP and PfP had a
direct impact upon the data-link architecture of the SwAF. The