OCTOBER 17, 2025 — In 1997, there were seven division headquarters in the Swedish Army, the “Svenska Armen.”
By 2000, with the Cold War over, there were none. Sweden’s Army was now built around much smaller battalions and brigades.
But when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and Sweden joined NATO in 2024, Sweden’s Army decided it needed divisions again to battle an enemy army capable of large-scale combat operations.
For help in exercising their first division headquarters in 25 years, the Swedish Army turned to the New York National Guard.
From Sept. 13 to Sept. 24, six Soldiers and one Airmen advised 150 Swedish officers and non-commissioned officers during a five-day division command post exercise at Sweden’s Ground Combat School in Enköping.
“The doctrine and tactics of a division have changed a lot in 30 years, and we were there to help them catch up,” explained Lt. Col. Nicholas Whaley, the commander of the New York Army National Guard’s 204th Engineer Battalion.
When Sweden picked New York to conduct training and exchanges under the Guard’s State Partnership Program, the New York Army Guard’s 42nd Infantry Division headquarters was a reason.
Swedish officers visited the 42nd during a Warfighter Command Post exercise in February 2025 before the 600-Soldier headquarters deployed to the Middle East to command the Army’s Task Force Spartan.
“We were lucky that we had a group of experienced division staff officers who were not deployed with the 42nd,” Whaley said. “All of us that went had experience on multiple division Warfighters and deployments,” he added.
Col. Jeffrey Csoka, who now serves on the Joint Force Headquarters operations staff , was the 42nd Infantry Division’s operations officer for two years.
His role was to work with the Swedish division’s command group.
“I spent a lot of time with the (operations officer), with the division commander, and their staff,” he said.
He helped them define the best way to provide information to the division commander so that he could make decisions, Csoka said.
“We spent a lot of time in meetings figuring out what the products they needed where,” he added.
The Swedes had a very ambitious exercise planned in which they tried to train both division and brigade staffs, Csoka said.
They did okay, he said, but with a division staff of only 150—compared with the 600 people in the 42nd Infantry Division headquarters —they were limited in many ways as to what they could accomplish in the time they had.
As a former division plans officer, Whaley said, his role was to help the Swedish staff plan for both the immediate fight, and the fight happening 48 hours out.
The five-day time frame of the exercise made that harder to do and since the Swedish division staff was not resourced for 24 -hour operations, at night the exercise slowed down, Whaley said.
“I’d say we scratched the surface in terms of giving them the tools to effectively plan to a 48-hour time horizon,’ he said. “The exercise didn’t lend itself to a full division Warfighter.”
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Jonathan Molik, the Director of Intelligence and Security for Joint Force Headquarters—New York, worked with the Swedish division’s intelligence section, along with their targeting and air ground coordination teams.
“We helped them by sharing some of our doctrine, which is NATO doctrine, and talked about what is required to be in the fight now,” Molik said.
There are far more “enablers” for the division fight that range from small drones everywhere on the battlefield, to cybernetic warfare on the internet. Just in the past ten years, the items that staffs must deal with have grown tremendously, he said.
They did help the Swedish team orchestrate a Combat Aviation Brigade deep strike, as part of the training exercise, Molik said.
The Swedes worked hard and wanted to learn, Molik said. But with a staff of only 150, they simply couldn’t manage the round-the-clock operations that the 42nd Infantry Division, with a headquarters of 600 people, routinely conducts, he said.
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Thomas Fancher, who now serves as the force integration officer for Joint Force Headquarters-New York, brushed up his skills as a targeting officer for this exercise.
He worked with the Swedes to apply the lessons the 42nd Infantry Division learned during their February 2025 Warfighter on the best way to integrate air, cannon and missile fires to hit targets, Fancher said.
A lot of time was spent on the targeting process itself, deciding which targets should be hit and when, he said. Their division needed to develop a battle rhythm to make the process work.
Working with the Swedish soldiers was incredibly rewarding, the New Yorkers said. The Swedes learn English in school so there was no language barrier, and their Swedish counterparts were incredibly receptive to what the Guardsmen had to share, they said.
“It was awesome,” Fancher said. “I think we had great rapport with everyone that was involved.”
“The Swedes were really appreciative that we were there to help them” he added.
Molik agreed.
“It went really well. They are motivated and excited to transition from their battalion and brigade focus to a division led organization,” he said.
“They soaked up as much as we could give them.”
Being at the Swedish exercise was also good training for the New Yorkers, Csoka said.
“Our folks got an appreciation for, and an exposure too, other militaries and some of the challenges they have. Understanding the big picture and how it is challenging is useful,” he said.
Whaley said that watching the Swedes training gave him a new appreciation for how the 42nd Infantry Division does business.
“We learned that what we do is really challenging,” Whaley said. “We really do a pretty darn good job with the staff that we have.”
By Eric Durr