Early spring 1843

Although the Swedish army was well-trained and could mobilize quickly, they could not rely on being brave, trained or organized if the enemy could simply gun them down rapidly from a distance. The weapons provided to the Swedish army was outdated and the age of flintlock rifles was coming to an end.

The whole kingdom, Sweden, Norway and Finland still relied heavily on older flintlock muskets. It had been realized before the war against Russia that they were using old equipment and had invested in Prussian percussion rifles as early as 1837, although none of these rifles saw combat as they were instead handed to the royal guard and other veteran regiments who remained behind to protect Sweden.

It was decided that funding would be set aside for a rearmament program for the Swedish army intended from the year 1843 and onward. Signed by the army staff and king Karl XIV Johan the Swedish and Finnish forces was to make percussion cap rifles the weapon of choice for the and would in time replace the old flintlock muskets. The plan was to slowly procure percussion rifles for the army by purchasing them from major powers whilst selling of their older flintlocks stockpile internally or to smaller nations. The kingdom was in need of no less than 50.000 rifles and if the government would raise ca. 100.000 riksdaler yearly to purchase ca. 5000 rifles, the rearmament and modernization of the Swedish army could be completed in as early as in 10 years. To put that into perspective, that was like paying around 500 farmers yearly, so in the end it would be expensive (ca. 1 million riksdaler), but the yearly cost would be modest.

The situation was different in Norway where it was left to the discretion of the parliament in Oslo to decide the funding for the Norwegian landvern. Some efforts had been made in 1841 to manufacture kammerladder rifles to arm a small ski corps of 2.400 men, however, the rifle was considered too expensive to actively be used for military duty. After the elderly king made a visit to Oslo to hear what they considered of such a prospect, it was said that the Norwegian parliament at the time being did not consider financing the purchase of new rifles when they already were financing the expansion of the union fleet, something that was considered more important for protecting Norway than their army.