 After the Russian victory against Sweden in 1743 , the Swedes established a commission to identify weaknesses in the eastern defenses . In 1747 , the commission concluded that the fortifications in southeastern Finland needed to be improved and expanded , and that Sweden needed to build a strong coastal navy . Augustin Ehrensvärd ( 1710 – 72 ) , an artillery officer , was the driving force behind these changes . The committee based many of its conclusions and decisions on his ideas . In 1756 , Sweden established the archipelago fleet with the official name <unk> <unk> ( " fleet of the army " ) under the command of the army department , <unk> , with Ehrensvärd as supreme commander . For two decades , the struggle for power between the Hats and the <unk> , the dominant political factions at the time , and rivalries between army and navy brought about changes to the archipelago fleet . The parliamentary victory of the Hats in the <unk> in 1769 – 70 and the coup d <unk> by King Gustav III in 1772 secured the archipelago fleet 's status as an independent branch of the army . Starting in 1770 , the archipelago fleet merged with the Finnish Squadron ( <unk> <unk> ) based at Sveaborg . In 1777 , it incorporated the Swedish Squadron ( <unk> <unk> ) , the galley fleet based at Stockholm . The Swedish armed forces invested considerable resources in the new army branch and made it a professional , independent organization . The archipelago fleet attracted members of the social and cultural elite who enjoyed the protection and patronage of King Gustav III , who had established himself as an absolute monarch in the 1772 coup . 
