Welcome aboard, here’s your FNC
How about these great images of the incoming batch of conscripts (Värnpliktig) reporting for service with the Stockholms Amfibieregemente (Amf 1, the 1st Marine Regiment) in Sweden?
On day one, before they even go for their equipment draw or haircut, they meet their new (to them, at least) Automatkarbin 5, or Ak5.
The Swedes had gotten away from conscription in 2007 then resumed it in 2017 as Russia got increasingly, well, Russia. Note that big winter triggerguard, something needed in Sweden, and the super comfy sling. I love a wide sling.
Today, just 8,000 youth see mandatory service annually, training anywhere from 6 to 15 months; plans are to ramp this up to over 10,000 in the next couple of years. About 30,000 inductees report, and the upper tier is selected to serve.
For reference, Sweden has about 29,000 men and women on active duty, a figure that would triple when the reserves and home guard (Hemvärnet) are activated.
Amf 1 was formed in 2000 as part of the Swedish Amphibious Corps. Originally raised from the Vaxholm Coastal Artillery Regiment, KA 1, it was renamed to its current title in October 2021. Its strength fluctuates between 800 and 1,100 depending on the number of Värnpliktigs on the rolls.
The country has a long tradition of conscripts watching the coast, going back to at least the 9th century ledungen. Here, Landstormen held down the task in 1914–1915.
Sweden has about 200,000 Ak5s, an FN FNC variant produced under license domestically by Bofors Carl Gustaf AB. While FN stopped producing the 5.56 long-stroke gas piston (like the Kalashnikov) carbine in 1999, the Swedes kept producing them until 2006 and still have arsenal-level workshops keeping them going.
They will soon be passed into the reserves, replaced by the incoming Ak24, a variant of the short-stroke piston Finnish Sako ARG 40.