Per Rudberg

Vice Admiral Per Yngve Rudberg (29 August 1922 – 9 May 2010) was a Swedish Navy officer. Rudberg was commissioned as an officer in the Swedish Navy after graduating from Royal Swedish Naval Academy in 1944. He served aboard destroyers, torpedo boats and training vessels and later became commanding officer of the First Destroyer Flotilla and led among other things the naval development in the emerging radar technology. Besides the usual management training, Rudberg attended the French Naval Academy. He served in the Defence Staff and the Naval Staff and was promoted to rear admiral and military commander of the Lower Norrland Military District (Milo NN) in 1973. Rudberg was promoted to vice admiral and served as the Chief of the Navy from 1978 to 1984 during which time the Swedish submarine incidents culminated when the Soviet submarine U 137 ran aground in Blekinge archipelago.

Early life Rudberg was born on 29 August 1922 in Vänersborg, Sweden, the son of bishop Yngve Rudberg and his wife Margit (née Hemberg). He was the brother of the philologist Stig Rudberg and the author Birgitta Rudberg. Rudberg's uncle was Gunnar Rudberg and cousin was Sten Rudberg. He passed studentexamen in Uppsala in 1941 and like many others during the World War II, Rudberg made his way to the military.

Career He underwent naval officer training and became an acting sub-lieutenant (fänrik) in the Swedish Navy in 1944 and held several naval appointments from 1944 to 1950. During these years, Rudberg was assigned to artillery weapons service and it resulted in service on torpedo boats, destroyers and cruisers and the training ship Prins Carl, where he for some years led the navy's radar and fire-control system school. He also served on land at the Royal Swedish Naval Academy in Näsbypark. He was a skilled captain and flotilla commanding officer who developed the naval tactics concerning electronic warfare and tactics against foreign anti-ship missiles. At this time, the security policy environment had deteriorated in Sweden's region through the Poland crisis and the increase in tension between the superpowers. The Swedish Navy had for a number of years strongly committed to acquire a Swedish anti-ship missile. New equipment was also procured for the submarine protection. Rudberg could collectively leave a qualitatively strengthened navy when he retired in 1984. In a news article in Svenska Dagbladet in 1998, Rudberg explained that after Prime Minister Olof Palme's assassination in Stockholm on 28 February 1986, Rudberg, who until recently had been the Chief of the Navy, had called the Supreme Commander Lennart Ljung and announced that he was ready to travel to Washington, D.C., where Sweden's naval chief had his place in the event of a war.

Retirement After his retirement from active service Rudberg settled in Värmdö and devoted much time to the church congregation activities as churchwarden and elected representative. He was for a period chairman of the parish council. In the church congregation, he got involved in particular issues relating to leadership.

Personal life In 1945 he married Kjerstin Oredsson (born 1920), the daughter of doctor Ola Oredsson and Katherine Spira.

Dates of rank 1944 – Acting sub-lieutenant 1946 – Sub-lieutenant 1954 – Lieutenant 1960 – Lieutenant commander 1964 – Commander 1967 – Captain 1970 – Senior captain 1973 – Rear admiral 1978 – Vice admiral

Awards and decorations

Swedish

Foreign 50x50px Commander with Star of the Order of St. Olav (1 July 1975)

Honours Member of the Royal Swedish Society of Naval Sciences (1961; honorary member in 1973) Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences (1967) Member of the Académie de Marine, Paris (1973)