Gotland is a favorite vacation destination for many Swedes. It’s also become a key strategic location as the NATO country’s military ramps up defense spending.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-07/sweden-s-baltic-outpost-faces-boom-and-backlash-with-nato-buildup

Posted by bloomberg

2 comments

  1. *Charlie Duxbury for Bloomberg News*

    The Tofta base is already home to around 300 conscripts, up from 40 in 2022. It will soon have bunks for at least double its current head count, and it recently absorbed a manor house next door to Suderbyn for overflow accommodation.

    Gotland island is many Swedes’ favorite holiday bolt-hole, and its landscape — a mix of agriculture and windswept beaches — is best known as the inspiration for Oscar-winning film director Ingmar Bergman. October would normally be time for many of its tourist businesses to power down for winter, but this year builders, restaurateurs, cafe owners and public transport operators are getting an extra boost from the hundreds of new military customers, even as the days get shorter.

    As recently as a decade ago, the base was little more than a firing range for Sweden’s part-time military. Today, the site is being transformed as trainee soldiers use its parade grounds and forest paths to hone their skills with artillery, trucks and tanks. The military ramp-up is also a clear illustration of how billions of euros in new defense spending are reshaping communities along NATO’s eastern reaches close to Russia.

    [Read the full dispatch here.](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-07/sweden-s-baltic-outpost-faces-boom-and-backlash-with-nato-buildup?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc2MjUxMzM1MSwiZXhwIjoxNzYzMTE4MTUxLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUNUNHUzVHUTdMMEQwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJEMzU0MUJFQjhBQUY0QkUwQkFBOUQzNkI3QjlCRjI4OCJ9.vUwDE1Hw5yyoPW9zu9V0Ux4O3n7JcTrlK3Lac1hJw4k)

  2. It has been a strategic location for centuries, it was just being neglected as such by each government as we were not currently in NATO

    They always feared it being the first point of contact with the Russians because control of the island can lead to a complete lockdown of the baltic sea

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