National CBRN Defence Centre



National CBRN Defence Centre (Totalförsvarets skyddscentrum, SkyddC) is a Swedish military unit with expertise regarding CBRN defense used by both the army, marines and the air force. The unit has been existing in different forms since 1953. Totalförsvarets skyddscentrum is localised together with Västerbottensgruppen (UG 61) within Umeå Garrison (also known as Umestan), which is the barracks that previously were used by Västerbotten Regiment.

History
The center has its origin from the gas technicians who were employed in the Swedish Armed Forces in the 1930s. In 1953 the Army ABC-Defence School (Arméns skyddskola) was formed within Infantry Combat School (Infanteriets stridsskola, InfSS) in Rosersberg. When InfSS was moved to Linköping the "Skyddskola" was transferred to Svea Life Guards (I 1), with had its former location at Ulriksdal.

In 1968 the school received new tasks and the name was changed to ABC-Defence School of the Armed Forces (Försvarets skyddsskola). 1970 moved the school along with the Svea Life Guards to Kungsängen. On 1 July 1988 the school was separated from the Svea Life Guards, and received new tasks with a focus on Totalförsvaret, with this organizational change, the school changed the name to ABC-Defence School of the Total Defence (Totalförsvarets skyddsskola).

After that the parliament voted for the Government Bill 1987/88: 112, it was decided that the school would be relocated in 1992 to Umeå Garrison.

On 27 July 2009 the last batch of conscripts started their training. Their training took place at Swea kompani at the National CBRN Defence Centre (Totalförsvarets skyddscentrum). These were later to be discharge at the 17 June 2010.

Most of the Swedish CBRN expertise is now gathered in Umeå, where SkyddC since autumn 2008 is part of a network that is part of the European CBRNE Center, including the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), Umeå University, Västerbotten County Council and Umeå Municipality.

The Swedish government decided in late 2010 to expand the CBRN focus with an indoor facility at SkyddC. This is to increase the safety of the training with CBRN material. In total around 80 million was to be invested in the facility.