Yesterday, we got the news that Sweden will begin storing grain again for the first time since the Cold War, marking a major step in its national defence strategy, with plans to invest 575 million kronor (52 million euros) as part of the 2026 budget.
You might be interested: Sweden to begin emergency food stockpiling for first time since Cold War over possibility of war.
At the same time, Sweden is also reinforcing its civil defence infrastructure. Since 2024, the government has allocated around €7.7 million to modernise the country's 64,000 wartime shelters, originally built during World War II and the Cold War.
One example is the Igeldamms car park in central Stockholm, an underground facility that appears to be a normal parking lot but can protect up to 1,200 people in the event of a military attack. In this case, renovation work there finished a few days ago.
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The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, responsible for overseeing the project, says improvements such as new diesel generators and air filtration systems can take up to three years per site, but the current budget is far from sufficient to restore every shelter.
Sweden's civil defence spending has already increased sevenfold since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Civil Defence Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin has cautioned that a military attack "can no longer be ruled out," urging citizens to prepare for emergencies.
To that end, authorities have reissued a modern version of a Cold War-era emergency guide, offering advice on how to respond to these emergencies, reflecting a growing awareness that national resilience now extends far beyond the battlefield.