Boden Municipality Holds Total Defence Exercise

The completed exercise was part of the Total Defence Exercise (ÖTF), which is taking place across Sweden from 2025 to 2027. The national aim is to strengthen Sweden’s resilience and capability within total defence, contribute to NATO’s collective defence, and help maintain peace and deterrence. The exercise is led by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency and involves the total defence system at several levels — parliament, government, national agencies, county administrative boards, and municipalities.

For the Municipality of Boden, the first exercise was conducted in a seminar format. Among other things, participants discussed the municipality’s role in total defence and how leadership, governance, and priorities change in the event of a threat of war, war, or heightened preparedness. Participants were given a scenario to manage both within their own departments and in collaboration with other groups.

“As a municipality, we are part of the total defence system, and it is important in peacetime to clarify what that means, update our knowledge, and review the tools we have available,” says Disa Kristinsdottir, preparedness coordinator for the Municipality of Boden.

Participants in the exercise included the municipal chief executive, the fire chief, the municipal legal counsel, department heads with their management teams, the communications unit, and security officers.

“We live in an uncertain time, which we see not least in the news every day. Spending a full day together like this focusing on total defence, and drawing on all the expertise that exists across our departments, was very valuable,” says Magnus Åkerlund, municipal chief executive.

The exercise also resulted in each department taking away experiences, checklists, and identified challenges to continue working on as part of their ongoing preparedness efforts.