Sweden will contribute a squadron of Jas Gripen fighter jets as well as a mine-sweeping ship to join the Nato Rapid Reaction Force (NRF), the government decided on Thursday.

The Swedish fighter squadron, ship, and roughly 120 service personnel will join the Nato force in 2014. By 2015, Sweden will contribute an additional eight Gripen fighters and an amphibious unit. . . .

“This means that they will be available for deployment as part of the NRF reserve force during this period. They will be in Sweden, but they will be ready for duty,” Sweden’s Defence Minister Karin Enström told the TT news agency.

“These are units that have been certified by Nato as being sufficiently well-trained to participate.”

Image: Swedish Air Force JAS 39 Gripen (photo: Ernst Vikne)