In the 1990s the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF) adopted the concept of outsourcing for the provision
of certain services. With an increasing amount of services being outsourced to civilian companies,
there is little research regarding which types of services are being outsourced by SAF, and
how it´s motivated. One service being partially outsourced is the guarding of military bases
throughout Sweden. With an on-going debate by researchers on the concept of military outsourcing
in expeditionary forces, this study takes a domestic view of outsourcing.
This thesis seeks to investigate the concept of military outsourcing, applied to the case of base
guards in Sweden. The analysis proves that several reasons or justifications for outsourcing base
guarding are presented by those responsible for security in Swedish military units. The analysis also
concludes that guard services is viewed different between headquarter level and regimental level.
Although considered not a core activity, due to high interdependence with core activities and
the requirement for firm-specific competence regimental representatives show more reluctance
towards outsourcing guard services.
2016. , p. 41