Finnish volunteers in Ukraine: Finland isn’t prepared to defend itself from Russia

15 comments

1. Finland by itself would probably have the same problems as Ukraine right now. Fortunately we have NATO.

   The biggest issue is how we are going to act when Russia inevitably starts baiting us into a conflict.

2. Are the politicians claiming that our security situation is adequate at the moment? We’ve joined NATO, are increasing our defense budget, just left the landmine treaty…

   Clearly the leadership recognizes that there is a lot of work to be done regarding this and are on it. Even the comment from the defense forces in the article states this

3. The guys in the article are talking about things that concern the Defence Forces, not politicians. I was on exercise a few weeks ago and the whole emphasis of that exercise was on drones. It’s not like personell in the Finnish Defence Forces are sitting idly, they’re constantly monitoring the war in Ukraine and learning from it. They receive intelligence reports directly from Ukraine and other allies as well as conduct interviews with Finns who return. Finns also happen to train a bunch Ukrainians that are to be sent into the war, so it’s not like what happens there is unknown for the Defence Forces. Also I served 10 years ago, what the conscripts do now is hell of a lot better than we did, a lot is changing and quickly.

   Moreover, the Air Force and the Navyhave recently gotten their big procurements through and next up is the Army who I am pretty sure will emphasise drones and artillery.

   To answer your questions, yes we are prepared but it also requires constant work. I trust Defence Forces to be on top of it.

4. As the nature of warfare was changed during the conflict, the old conscript training is naturally outdated now. The FDF follows the development of the conflict and warfare in general with a keen eye, and they are already developing methods to counter the contemporary drone-warfare.

5. From the article:
   ”Yle asked the Finnish Defence Forces to comment on the allegations made by Finnish soldiers.

   ”The Defence Forces are closely following the events of the war in Ukraine, including developments in technology, tactics and methods. The Defence Forces are constantly developing their own performance and expertise to meet the requirements of the threat environment,” the Finnish Defence Forces said in their response.”

   This is all i need to know as an old reservist.

6. It’s going to be a very steep learning curve for sure with (FPV) drones and the like, but other than that, it’s probably what we’ve been expecting: a hellish battle for national survival where absolutely nothing will come for free.

7. Surprise-surprise. And not only Finland, every country in the EU that borders Russia must avoid illusions.

8. Ignore it.

   Those guys’ comments were related to drones, and their experience of the DF were from before the Ukraine war.

   It’s not like the DF’s been sitting on their hands while the most informative real world test of fighting methods against Russia has been going on for years?!

   Rest assured, the DF fully understands that researching this war is a *golden* opportunity.

   Finland is also collaborating with UA in drone R&D.

9. And yet Stubb is selling ice breakers to Putin’s little buddy.

10. I have confidence in the armed forces being able to defend against an armed russian invasion. But I have absolutely no faith in the current government being able to hold off against russia in any shape or form. If anything, based off of the way they have been talking about russia, I would sooner expect the current government to cooperate with russia to fatten the wallets of both parties involved rather than defend the sovereignty of Finland.

11. Ну забор то построили. Чего теперь волноваться?

12. Matching UAF drone warfare capability at FDF today is absolutely a waste of resources for a conflict happening in +5 years time. Tech and tactics are evolving at such a rapid pace that major investments are outdated quickly.

    What one might want to do is to train reserve NCOs and officers in sufficient numbers on the basics of practical use and tactics.

    I trust that the EU has the industrial capacity to produce the drones, should the need arise. Finland has an extremely strong r&d and engineering population to support MacGyvering acute issues on the ground. And tons of gamers.

    If Russia and Ukraine are capable of that, sure enough Finland and Nordics can do it as well, not to mention the EU. What we can learn is the tactics and monitor technological development.

13. Fpv drones being the number 1 threat to combatants is a new development from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These volunteers have done their conscription in Finland maybe 5 to 10 years ago when cheap chinese quadcopters weren’t even thought about. I trust the fdf to make necessary changes to strategies and tactics based on new intelligence coming from Ukraine.

14. tl;dr; They are specifically talking about how drones have changed warfare.

15. But Finland wouldn’t have to face Russia alone. Finland is part of NATO.

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