Royal Air Force Typhoon fighters from 6 Squadron, RAF Lossiemouth are conducting enhanced training with F/A-18 Hornets of the Finnish Air Force as part of the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force.
This comes not long after British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace made clear that Britain would defend Finland and Sweden if either of the countries were attacked as both Sweden and Finland recently applied to join NATO.
Lapland Air Command is hosting the visit at Rovaniemi Air Base. The RAF detachment consists of four Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4s and around 70 personnel.
The event will include also include cross border training missions with the Swedish Air Force, says Lieutenant Colonel Vihersalo, Commander of Fighter Squadron 11, Lapland Air Command.
Wing Commander Rees, Officer Commanding 6 Squadron, was quoted as saying:
“Working with the Finnish Air Force as part of the Joint Expeditionary Force provides an opportunity to integrate more closely and develop our skills in a different environment, in the High North.”
According to a news release from the RAF:
“The Eurofighter Typhoons operating out of Rovaniemi Air Base will participate in the Finnish Air Force’s daily flight training activity together with the F/A-18 Hornets of the Lapland and Karelia Air Commands.
The Joint Expeditionary Force training event is part of the Finnish Defence Forces’ enhanced training and exercise activity with partners, approved by the Finnish Minister of Defence Antti Kaikkonen on 27th May 2022.”
The objective of the enhanced cooperation, say the UK, is to strengthen Finland’s defence capability and to demonstrate partner nations’ support to Finland.
I’m pretty sure that Ben Wallace said we would ‘support’ Finland if it was attacked while it applies for NATO membership.
“Support” is very different to “defending”. The former is what we are doing for Ukraine right now, latter means deploying our troops into harms way, which we will not do until Finland (and Sweden) become members of NATO. At that point we will defend Finland under Article 5, as will the rest of NATO…
In general, this training deployment is a good thing as it shows commitment to Finland and Sweden as well as giving practical support in their efforts to improve their readiness.
Cheers CR
Hi CR. I reckon if Finland was attacked, even before joining NATO then an all out war with the West would be unavoidable. We should not underestimate how truly unhinged are some elements of Putin’s gang.
The West and Russia have backed the other side in many previous conflict with military hardware and more-Korea, Afghanistan and Syria to mention a few without any hint that things could get out of hand, but Ukraine on Russia’s doorstep is another matter especially in this time of Putin’s descent into some dark territory along with many of his sidekicks.
Hi geoff,
I agree that a NATO / Russia, would be a possibility if Finland was invaded by Russia but I do not think it is in anyway a certainty. Simply because there is no prior agreement, legal or political for the West, which in this instance means NATO, to intervene militarily if Russia invaded Finland prior to NATO membership.
So there would need a specific agreement between the allies for them to deploy troops and that, understandly, would not necessarily be easy to achieve.
What is more likely is that NATO would deploy considerable forces to neighbouring NATO allies, Norway, Poland and the Baltic States by way of enhanced deterence. I could see that some incident, probably at sea, would trigger an exchange between Russian and NATO forces.
I also think such a deployment would be considerably larger than the current deployments into Easter Europe in response to the Ukraine War as the West would see scary parrels with another dictator’s actions 85 years ago. It would not want to be caught out again. As such there would be ample opportunity for miscalculation, especially given Russia’s apparent trigger happy attitude these days and NATO’s likely tough stance in any encounter…
Cheers CR
Nice analysis CR
Finland,Finland,Finland
The country where I want to be
Pony trekking or camping
Or just watching TV…
What Britain and the West need to articulate clearly and firmly, is that they have no fight with the Russian people, and absolutely no intention whatsoever of threatening Russian territory. It needs to be spelled out and disseminated.
Whilst that may be true, how do you disseminate information like that into a country that has closed its mind (figuratively) to the media of the western / NATO nations?
I believe that some social media is still operating and even given for the power of propaganda I am sure there are many Russians, possibly a majority who would speak out strongly if they were able. To me this war is akin to England invading Scotland or the USA waging war on Canada in the 21st Century!! There are(were!) such strong bonds of ethnicity, language and culture between Ukraine and Russia that it must sicken millions of ordinary Russians not to mention how the death of all those young Russian men for nothing must agonise their families
Independent information is widely available in Russia. It is simply dismissed by 80% of Russians as western propaganda.
Sad but true…
There is no affinity between the US and Canada as you seem to think there is between Russia and Ukraine. The vast majority of Canadians are anti-American and have an inferiority complex towards the US and Americans are indifferent to Canadians. The US wouldn’t wage war against Canada simply because it doesn’t think Canada is worth the effort and Canada is militarily incapable of waging war against anyone.
Daniel we can agree to disagree on this. The modern USA would never wage war against the Canadians-certainly not because it isn’t worth the effort!!! In addition relations between the two country are cordial and close-the Longest unguarded border in the world says it all!!