Incoming NATO member Sweden has a military built for 'one thing, and one thing only: fighting Russia,' says expert

• Sweden is set to join NATO, a blow to Putin who considers the military alliance a threat to Russia.
• Sweden's military is built for one thing: fighting Russia, expert Robert Clark wrote in The Telegraph.

Sweden, which is on track to become a member of NATO, has a military built for fighting Russia, an expert wrote in The Telegraph.

Robert Clark, the director of defense and security for UK think tank Civitas and a British veteran, said that Sweden's "military is built for one thing, and one thing only: fighting Russia."

He outlined the ways that Sweden's military being part of NATO is likely bad news for Russia.

Sweden took a major step towards becoming a NATO member on Tuesday when Turkey, which had been blocking its membership, agreed to back its bid after getting a series of concessions from existing members.

Sweden joining would be a major blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has painted NATO as a threat and justified his invasion of Ukraine in part by saying that NATO was expanding eastwards towards his borders.

Both Sweden — and Finland, which joined NATO in April — cited Russia's invasion of Ukraine as reasons for breaking decades of neutrality and seeking to join.

In highlighting likely concerns for Russia, Clark pointed to Sweden's advanced technology, like its submarines, which he said are "universally acknowledged to be amongst the best in the world, and almost entirely undetectable – even by the best the US has to offer."

Its air force, he said, also has world-class jets, including some that can be launched from highways instead of airports, a legacy of the Cold War.

Clark also pointed to Sweden's geography giving NATO a new advantage when it comes to combating Russia.

Sweden, which is in Northern Europe, has a Baltic Sea coastline.

Estonia's defense minister previously told Insider that having Sweden and Finland in NATO would turn the Baltic into a "NATO Sea" that could deter Russia and help countries in the region more easily defend themselves.

Clark wrote that Sweden could help control the waters and "effectively deny their use to the Russian navy."

And with Sweden in NATO, every country in the Arctic would be in the alliance apart from Russia, he added. (The others are Finland, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, the US, and Canada.)

Clark also pointed to Sweden's plans to increase its military over the coming years, with military spending set to rise to 2% of GDP by 2026, meeting the target NATO sets for its members.

Sweden also aims to increase its military by a third by 2030, Clark noted, with plans to go from 55,000 personnel to 90,000, citing Russia's military as its motivation.

He also said that Sweden plans to triple its artillery battalions, describing it as a lesson Sweden learned from watching the war in Ukraine.

Carl Bildt, a former Swedish prime minister, told the Financial Times that Sweden joining NATO will make it easier for countries in the region to defend themselves as they can combine resources and work together.

Turkey's parliament still needs to approve Sweden becoming a NATO member for it to be able to join, as does the parliament in Hungary. But the decision of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to back its bid means that the ratification of Sweden's membership is "only a technical question," Hungary's foreign minister said.