On the 7th day, he rested.
“Putin’s Ambitions Put Finland’s Troops and Tanks Back In Vogue
For Finland, the Cold War never ended. Its top military commander is now urging NATO to speed up its membership application.
For much of the last 30 years Finland’s armed forces have looked a little old fashioned, still configured to fight a major land campaign in Europe as though the Cold War never ended. No more.
As Finland readies to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization against the backdrop of Europe’s bloodiest war since 1945, in Ukraine, the Nordic nation’s military is back in vogue. Its commanders are also well aware of what they bring to the table in a potential fight.
“We have significant defensive ability to wage the kind of war that’s now taking place in Ukraine,” Finland’s top commander General Timo Kivinen said in an interview. “On a per capita basis, we have probably the most fire power in Europe.”
Finnish officials admit to frustration that the country has yet to join NATO six months after the alliance issued its invitation. That has left both Finland and fellow-invitee Sweden in a so-called “gray” zone between abandoning military non-alignment and gaining NATO’s Article 5 collective defense protections.
“We already fulfill the military criteria for membership, and looking at our defense expenditure, we comply with the 2% of GDP criterion,” Kivinen said.
Despite a population of just 5.5 million, Finland has more artillery than France and Germany combined and can call on as many as 280,000 troops in time of war. Though most of those are trained reserves, the figure is larger than that of the UK.
Finland’s fleet of F/A-18 Hornets armed with advanced US missiles will soon be replaced by 64 Lockheed Martin F-35A aircraft joint strike fighters. At sea, there are elaborate coastal defenses and a shallow water navy tailored for the rocky coasts of the Baltic, plus a capability for fighting in the Arctic and, in Lapland, Europe’s biggest training area for air combat across the three Nordic countries.”