3,000 soldiers to join series of local defence exercises in Finland

The Army will organise six local defence exercises from February 24 to March 7 where up to 3,000 conscripts, reservists, and service personnel from the Defence Forces will participate, said an official press release on Monday.

More than 400 vehicles will join the exercises.

As is characteristic for local defence exercises, the training audience will also include a significant number of other authorities and business sector stakeholders.

Each exercise will focus on securing its own region’s critical targets, which will enhance their protection in disruptions.

The local forces’ specialist competence will be developed in co-operation with other authorities based on the area of responsibility, force use principle and location.

The local defence exercises organised by the Army will now involve troops of the Alliance for the first time as the exercise Lapland Stone 25 to be held in Lapland is to be participated by troops from Sweden and the U.S.

The purpose of their participation is to strengthen the Army’s capability for receiving international assistance also for tasks of local defence.

“The objective of the local defence exercises this spring is to develop the local forces’ capability for increasingly demanding combat tasks across Finland, while strengthening the readiness of the whole local defence network to respond to broad-spectrum influencing, and to conduct inter-agency co-operation to secure society’s vital functions,” said Army Chief of Operations, Brigadier General Sami-Antti Takamaa.