– Highlights from Almedalen 2026 –
Sweden has no shortage of ideas, technical expertise or innovative companies. Yet it often takes years before new solutions reach the people who need them most: the soldiers.
During Almedalen Week, Amyna, Ideon Science Park, brought together representatives from the Swedish Armed Forces, industry, startups and the Swedish Security and defense Industry Association (SOFF) to discuss why defense innovation so often gets stuck between concept and operational deployment.
The panel featured Mats Wiksell, Head of Business Area Naval at Saab; Claes Carpenfelt, Senior Strategist at BAE Systems Bofors; Andreas Ziegenfeldt of the Swedish Armed Forces; Sebastian Merlöv, CEO of Sweden Dynamics; and Robert Limmergård, Secretary General of SOFF. The discussion was moderated by Daniel Persson, Head of Amyna.
Daniel framed the conversation:
Sweden does not lack innovation or technology. So why are we still not moving as fast as we know we could?
Innovation traditionally starts with the military problem
Defense innovation often does not start with technology, but with the operational need. Increasingly, however, ideas come straight from the industry, to future military problems.
Andreas Ziegenfeldt explained how the Swedish Armed Forces are changing the way they work. Rather than writing detailed technical specifications from the outset, the goal is to define the military problem, a hypothesis departing from what they know about technology – and then test possible solutions together with industry.
Civilian technology development is moving faster than ever. We need to understand new technologies as they evolve, and we do not always do that. That is why we need to develop capabilities closely together with academia and industry, and not separately.
He also pointed out that many of today’s regulations and processes were designed for a different era.
We need to be able to test, learn and adapt much faster.
From requirements to iteration
The same message was echoed by several panelists.
Sebastian Merlöv, CEO of startup Sweden Dynamics, argued that the defense sector can learn from modern product development.
We need to move away from the traditional waterfall model and work iteratively. Start with the use case; what does the soldier actually need to achieve? Then build and improve the solution step by step in close collaboration and ideally tested on soldiers – so that they can contribute with feedback directly.
At the same time, he stressed that speed must never come at the expense of safety.
We cannot move too fast. We are developing systems that people must be able to trust when it matters most.
Industry can no longer wait for requirements
One of the clearest shifts discussed during the panel was how established defense companies are changing their approach to innovation.
Mats Wiksell from Saab explained that the traditional model, waiting for the customer to define a requirement and fund development, is no longer sufficient.
We need to invest ourselves, mature new technologies and demonstrate working solutions before approaching the customer.
This is particularly important in fast-moving areas such as autonomous and unmanned underwater systems.
We need to take solutions far enough that end users can test and evaluate them.
Speed has become a capability
Robert Limmergård, Secretary General of SOFF, perhaps summed up the discussion best.
Speed has become a capability in its own right.
But speed cannot exist in isolation.
Innovation about technology, but about legislation, procurement, business models and how government, the armed forces and industry work together.
The friction points differ depending on the product, but they almost always appear somewhere between the idea and operational deployment.
At the same time, he was optimistic about the direction:
A great deal is happening right now. We need to build on that momentum.
Procurement must enable innovation
Several panelists identified procurement as one of the biggest barriers to faster innovation.
According to Mats Wiksell, today’s procurement processes serve an important purpose but were not designed for the pace of modern technology development.
If we fulfil the intent of the regulations, that should be enough. The current processes were created for a different generation of technology.
Robert Limmergård also called for new types of commercial agreements. Rather than locking products into long-term contracts, procurement should encourage continuous improvement and technology upgrades.
We need innovation-friendly contracts that make it natural to replace, improve and evolve solutions over time.
Startups must become part of the ecosystem
Both Saab and BAE Systems highlighted the importance of closer collaboration with startups and smaller technology companies.
Claes Carpenfelt explained that BAE Systems is increasingly looking for military problems to solve rather than waiting for detailed requirements. That also means building new partnerships.
Startups bring speed and innovation, while established industry contributes system integration, industrialization and long-term delivery.
Mats Wiksell agreed that large defense companies also need to adapt.
We must be able to develop rapid capabilities together with startups while continuing to deliver the complex, long-term systems.
The biggest change is cultural
When the panel concluded, participants were asked what change they hoped to see by this time next year.
For Andreas Ziegenfeldt, the answer was not technology. It was culture.
We need to treat this with greater urgency. Our soldiers deserve the best equipment we can provide, and we need to act accordingly.
Claes Carpenfelt hoped to see a culture where iterative development becomes the norm and where early failures are accepted as part of learning faster.
Mats Wiksell ended with a reminder that innovation is a long-term investment.
What we’re harvesting today was planted twenty years ago. What we want to harvest five years from now, we need to start planting today.
The key takeaway
If the discussion could be summarized in one sentence, it would be:
Sweden does not need more ideas. Sweden needs to become better at turning ideas into operational capability; even if we are doing a lot of things really well and several initiatives to speed things up are in the making.
But we still need closer collaboration between the Swedish Armed Forces, government agencies, established industry and startups. We needprocurement models that enable iteration rather than lock in solutions. Above all, we need a shared understanding that speed is no longer just a competitive advantage; it is an essential part of defense capability.
