Chief of Army (Sweden)

Chief of Army (Swedish: Arméchef, AC) is the most senior appointment in the Swedish Army. The position Chief of Army was introduced in 1937 and the current form in 2014.

In 1937, the staff agency "Chief of the Army" (Swedish: Chefen för armén, CA) was created to lead the army in peace time. The CA would under the King in Council exercise the highest military leadership of the Land-defense Ministry (Swedish: Lantförsvaret). At his side, the CA had an Army Staff to assist the CA in his duties. Before 1937 the Chief of the General Staff was considered to be the Chief of Army, but he was not usually to the rank of chief, but formally only the king's chief of staff in his capacity as Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces. The oldest general was chairman of the special preparatory body called the Generals Commission (Generalskommissionen).

Following a larger reorganization of the Swedish Armed Forces in 1994, the staff agency Chief of the Army ceased to exist as an independent agency. Instead, the post Chief of Army Staff (Swedish: Chefen för arméledningen) was created at the then newly instituted Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters (Swedish: Högkvarteret, HKV). In 1998, the Swedish Armed Forces was again reorganized. Most of the duties of the Chief of Army Staff were transferred to the newly instituted post of "Inspector General of the Army" (Swedish: generalinspektören för armén). The post is similar to that of the "Inspector General of the Swedish Navy" (Swedish: Generalinspektören för marinen) and the "Inspector General of the Swedish Air Force" (Swedish: Generalinspektören för flygvapnet). It was later renamed to "Inspector of the Army" (Swedish: Arméinspektören).