He doesn't look like MacGyver. He doesn't move like MacGyver. But when Marcus Tynnhammar talks, he sounds a bit like MacGyver. The fictional American TV hero from the 1980s and the head of the experimental department at the air force staff outside Uppsala solves both tricky situations with existing objects, often with inventiveness as the primary weapon.
Some of the things we're testing are taking old gadgets we have in storage and then testing to tape them together and see what works, says Tynnhammar.
His department is currently under construction. The hope is for more employees in the near future and to be able to run "reasonably full speed" after the summer. The experimental department is to shorten lead times for things the Swedish Armed Forces need to develop. But also to simplify contact between different branches of the military and the civilian business community.
The Swedish Armed Forces' lead times are twelve years to buy things if you're lucky. While the lead times we're after and that companies want are to develop quickly and have things in place within one or two years.
"Screw and nut"
Right now, the pace is "a couple of projects a week". It can be anything from testing possible AI solutions to taking existing gadgets and modifying them so they can be used in a new way.
The span right now is everything from screw and nut to discussing how we could use different IT solutions in space.
The Swedish Armed Forces "inventing new weapons" has been true for centuries, but the recent combination of technological advancements and wars in the nearby area has put a new spin on it.
I think what Russia's war in Ukraine has contributed with is that more people feel a sense of urgency, says Tynnhammar.
Increased allocations
Recently, the government presented investments in the Swedish defense in the order of 300 billion kronor – the largest military buildup since the Cold War. Increased allocations provide more room for innovation, admits Tynnhammar:
It's never anyone who says "you can't do that because it costs money", on the contrary. But at the same time, I'm a Smålander at heart, we can do a lot without it costing anything. But it's nice to know that I can come up with really wild ideas.
A three-stage rocket
Tynnhammar describes the overall ambition as Sweden and the Swedish Armed Forces once again becoming innovation-driven like a three-stage rocket:
The first step is what we've done before. To sit and wait for a good gadget to come along and then buy it.
Step two is what we're doing now, to develop together with civilian companies to reach a level of development comparable to what's happening in the world around us.
Step three is to get back to how it used to be. For companies to come to us and wonder what we've developed that they can use.
Deeply rooted capability
Even if Sweden is not currently on step three according to Tynnhammar's classification, he believes there are good, unique prerequisites to get there.
There are two things Sweden has always been very good at. One is the latest technologies and the other is collaboration. Other countries can be skilled in technologies, he says and continues:
But the collaborative capability is something that is so deeply rooted in Sweden that it's hard for anyone else to catch up with us there. We can sit in the same room even if we're not in agreement. We can even be direct competitors as companies, but we can still do something together.
The experimental department at the air force staff in Uppsala is not the only department within the Swedish defense that deals with innovation and has come up with "inventions" recently.
Earlier this year, Loke, a weapon system for countering drones, was demonstrated, developed by the Swedish Armed Forces, the defense industry, and the Defense Materiel Administration.
In March, the torpedo 47 was test-fired, installed on a Stridsbåt 90, a smaller vessel than what it was originally developed for. The work on the modification was a collaboration between the Defense Materiel Administration, the Swedish Armed Forces, and Saab.
