Finland plans to restore vertical missile outreach

Finland plans to acquire a new surface-to-air defense missiles system that would restore its vertical missile range to some 20 km, a Finnish language newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported on Monday.

The Finnish surface-to-air vertical distance shrunk some years ago, when Finland scrapped its Russian-made Buk missiles that reached this 20-km distance.

Finland gave up the Buk system and purchased the Nasams system developed in the United States and Norway. Its vertical reach is said to be 10 km.

Interviewed by the Helsingin Sanomat, Colonel Ari Groonroos, inspector of anti-aircraft operations at the Finnish defense forces, played down the U.S. Patriots surface-to-air system as Finland's next choice.

"Patriot is fairly expensive," the report quoted Groonroos as saying.

Weeks ago, Finland's western neighbour Sweden announced it would buy the Patriots.

Groonroos told the Helsingin Sanomat that Finland wants to "double its reach in height", but refused to speculate about the choice.

Since the phasing out of the Buks, Finnish air defense at the height of over 10 km has been based on the deployment of its Hornet F-18s.

The report said that Finland would be sending requests of tenders to missile manufacturers soon, possibly at the end of 2017. The country will make its choice in 2019 when tests would begin. The successful candidates will replace the Hornet fighters.

Earlier media speculation was that Finland would update its Nasams system with the latest Amraam-ER. But Groonroos said this would not necessarily be the case.

When Sweden announced the purchase of the Patriots, it underlined that Patriots would also repel ballistic missiles.

Groonsroos said that being able to counter ballistic missiles was not Finland's primary aim. He said defense against ballistic missiles would not be feasible over wide areas.

He also said ballistic missiles were constantly developed to be able to penetrate defense.