Military exercises | Latu opened for NATO exercises – This is what it means for Finland

Defense forces next year will take part in a historic number of international military exercises.

The 2024 international exercise plan includes no fewer than 103 exercises in Finland and abroad. The total for the year thus exceeds one hundred for the first time.

For example, last year there were only 60 international exercises. At that time, the small number was partly explained by the coronavirus epidemic, which caused the exercises to be cancelled.

In which of all military exercises organized abroad, the Finnish leadership has decided that Finland will participate next year, the people are no longer told well in advance. this is a clear change to the open practice of recent years.

One reason The reason for the increase in international exercises is that 2024 will be Finland’s first full year as a NATO member.

According to the Ministry of Defence the most important change in the training activities is that Finland now participates in exercises in which “operational capability and readiness required for NATO joint operations are developed and operational plans are tested as part of the alliance’s command and force structure”.

In other words, exercises in accordance with the collective defense of the NATO Charter will become part of the training routines of the Defense Forces.

Another reason for the increase in international exercises is that next year foreign forces will participate in some of the exercises previously held only nationally in Finland. In this case, the exercises become international.

Ministry of Defence announced on November 20 about next year’s international exercises of the Defense Forces.

The Ministry of Defense only said the name of the most significant international exercise held abroad. It was the March Nordic Response led by Norway, which is also partly organized in Finland.

The purpose was to tell about other exercises only before the start of the exercise.

HS requested more detailed information about the Defense Forces’ first year’s international exercises with a request for information.

According to the Ministry of Defense’s response, the country leading the exercise is responsible for informing about international exercises, and not all of them in which Finland participates have yet been officially informed.

“Therefore, we cannot publish information related to them in the same way as we can publish information about the exercises organized in Finland that we are responsible for,” said a senior department foreman Mikko Koskimaa from the Ministry of Defence.

However, the aforementioned has not been an obstacle to informing about exercises in recent years. NATO membership seems to have taken the information of the defense administration in a more secretive direction.

From the Ministry however, it was said that the most important international exercises in terms of developing leadership skills are the Defense Forces’ own leadership exercises, the leadership exercises of allies, Sweden’s leadership exercises and NATO’s leadership exercises.

NATO’s leadership exercises were reported exceptionally under the name Coalition Warfighting Interoperability Exercise, or CWIX, organized in Poland.

The leadership exercises are the leadership exercises of the Defense Forces. The Ministry of Defense is told that they are developing operational, tactical and technical compatibility.

Ministry of Defence according to the important international exercises organized by Finland itself are Hanki led by the Air Force in February and the Army’s Arrow in April, Northern Forest in May and Northern Strike in November.

In addition, Merivoimat will organize the Freezing Winds exercise in November next year, which is currently underway this year.

The largest number of allied and Swedish troops will come to Finland during the Northern Forest and Nordic Response exercises.

Defense forces participated for the first time in an international exercise like the current one in 1993. Finland’s accession to NATO’s Partnership for Peace program increased the number of international exercises.

Until 2016, the Ministry of Defense did not agree to publish in advance the names of the next year’s international exercises, but they were only announced to the public just before the exercise began. It was not possible to give proper reasons to Salaaminen, so the policy was changed.

According to the new practice, the Ministry of Defense published information on the most important exercises after the President of the Republic and the Foreign and Security Policy Ministerial Committee of the Government Council had outlined Finland’s participation and the Minister of Defense had approved the plan.

The number of international exercises clearly increased after the mid-2010s. The reason must have been a reaction to Russia’s occupation of Crimea and its machinated war in eastern Ukraine.

Finland participated in many new exercises because it wanted to gain experience on which of them would be useful for the Defense Forces.

The number of exercises decreased when the tuition fees were paid in the early 2020s. The Defense Forces selected only the most relevant exercises for Finland’s defense.

International in terms of training activities, the most special year was 2022, when Russia attacked Ukraine in February and Finland later submitted a membership application to NATO.

The year 2022 showed that military exercises also have a great communicative significance.

The original training plan published the previous year included 62 international training events for 2022. However, it was unexpectedly announced at the beginning of summer that the number of training sessions was increased with a supplementary plan.

By rapidly increasing the exercises, Finland wanted to show Russia that Finland’s NATO membership application had broad support from NATO countries.

The supplementary plan contained eight completely new and 12 changed or partly new training and training events or frameworks.

At that time, training cooperation was increased especially with the United States, Great Britain, Sweden, France, Germany, Norway, NATO and the Jef group.