When the war broke out, the Royal Swedish Air Force (Flygvapnet, FV), like the other combat arms, was too small. The aircraft were too old, too slow and had ranges too short. Sweden at this time had only a small aircraft industry of its own and most planes had to be imported. The problem was, before the war the FV hadn't enough money to buy modern aircraft, and when the war came and the politicians gave them the money they needed, no country wanted to export its modem aircraft.

Aircraft in service in September 1939 included:

J8 Gloster Gladiator 52 (33 operative)
B 4 Hawker Hart 35 (28 operative)
B 3 Junker 86K 37 (29 operative)
T 2 Heinkel 112 12 (7 operative)

The FV at once started to search across Europe and the United States for new planes. The following planes were imported from other countries:

# of planes	Type	Time of Delivery
60	J 9 Seversky EP-1	Dec 1939-Aug 1940
72	J 11Fiat CR.42	June 1940-Oct 1941
84	S 16 Caproni 313	Oct 1940-Nov 1941
12	S 12 Heinkel	July 1941-Apr 1942
60	J 20 Re 2000	May 1941-Feb 1943

The Swedish aircraft industry centered around the SAAB factory was expanded dramatically. It produced both foreign planes under license and its own designs. The following planes were built in Sweden during the war:

# of planes	Type	Time of Delivery
16	B 3 Junker 86K	Aug 1940-Oct 1940
102	B 5 Northrop 8 A-1	Apr 1940-Apr 1943
180	B/S 17 SAAB	Oct 1942
60	J 22	Aug 1944

These acquisitions made the FV quantitatively stronger. At different times the number of operative aircraft was:

9 Apr 40 122 planes
1 Jan 41 190 planes
21 Jun 41 300 planes
1 Mar 42 287 planes

This 1942 decrease was the result of big problems with the Caproni 313. At that time 90% of those planes were inoperative.

Quality increased with the J 22, and B/S 17, but it was far below that of any potential attacker throughout the war.

The designations J, B, S and T in the model names are Swedish for jakt (fighter), bomb (bomber), spaning (reconnaissance) and torped (torpedo-plane).

Swedish Armed Forces 1939-45

Introduction
Army
Air Force
Navy