Skip to main content

Commandos in the Northern Wind 2019


There have been very few times in history, when a peacetime military training exercise of a non-aligned country has carried as much weight as the recent Swedish Northern Wind 2019. The 10 000-soldier exercise was the biggest showcase of interoperability and co-operation the region has seen.
 
Finnish Leopard 2A6 participating in Northern Wind 2019 (Photo: Puolustusvoimat)

The unscripted force on force exercise provided a perfect platform for two separate integration experiments. A Swedish/Finnish brigade was formed around a Swedish mechanized battalion. The joint brigade contained a 1500-man Finnish contingent. This was the largest military force Finland has sent beyond its borders since 1944, and it was gathered from several Finnish brigades and consisted mostly of conscripts. The combined Finnish and Swedish force with their heavy armor and artillery assets were assigned to delay and defend the northern Sweden from the other joint force coming from the north west.

Norwegian army gathered up a combined arms brigade, which was then reinforced by United States Marine Corps and British Royal Marines. The combined brigade got the rather daunting task of pushing the determined defenders out of their way.

In order to make the unscripted exercise even more realistic most of the participating combat forces were equipped with battlefield simulators that allowed the exercising forces to simulate both direct and indirect fire against each other.

Royal Marine Commando and the Viking ATV, note the simulator attached to helmet, vest and rifle. (Photo: 40 Commando)

I had the opportunity to briefly interview the Lt Col. Paul Maynard who commands the 40 Commando that formed the British contingent in the exercise. For the very first time the 350 British Commandos were fully integrated into the Norwegian brigade.

It was also “Unprecedented” that the two reconnaissance troops participating in the exercise were commanded by a Norwegian brigade staff and provided timely information to the brigade commander. The logistics component of the Commandos was even more tightly integrated to the Norwegian logistics support battalion. British medics were embedded into Norwegian ambulance teams and mechanics attached to the battalion’s maintenance squads.

According to the Lt Col Maynard the integrated brigade operated successfully with only some minor difficulties with the communications and sharing of the battlespace. He stated that the greatest success was the deployment of the Royal Marine contingent from their base in Norway hundreds of kilometers into the Swedish wilderness on time and without any problems.

While the weather conditions in the Swedish north were challenging with rising temperatures softening the over a meter-deep snow in the forests, the Commandos were able to keep mobile as all of the participating soldiers were classified as ski-mobile. With the help of Viking armored ATVs, loaned Norwegian snowmobiles and some unarmored BV-206s they were capable of moving in pace with the attacking brigade.

While the conditions in the high north are naturally challenging, the modern British equipment allowed the troops to maintain their fighting ability even in the sub-zero temperatures. In addition to the standard issue equipment the Commandos were testing some new pieces of equipment.

Lt Col Maynard particularly mentioned that the new weapon-sights, that combined image intensifiers and thermal imaging sights into a single compact and lightweight optical sight, were very useful in the forests of Northern Sweden.

While Lt Col Maynard very politely declined to comment on the success of the two brigades fighting against each other, he did bring out the fact that fighting against the combined Swedish/Finnish brigade was a challenge and the defenders had an upper hand as they were able to fight in familiar terrain dominated by natural choke-points. Also, the armor- and artillery-heavy composition of the defenders acted in their favor. He also estimated that the Swedish army was rather inexperienced in this kind of an unscripted force on force exercise, so they had a learning curve to overcome.

While the 40 Commando will soon head home, the new arctic strategy of the UK will see British units of up to 2000 soldiers participating in future drills in the high north, stated Lt Col Maynard at the end of the interview.

Finnish MT-LBs from the Armored Brigade. (Photo: Puolustusvoimat)

From a Finnish viewpoint the exercise has been a huge milestone for the Finnish-Swedish co-operation of land forces. The capability to field combined brigade-level formations is a crucial one, if there is ever a need to delay and  to especially counter attack a Russian invasion across the Lapland.

It’s equally important that Finland, Sweden and Norway and their closest partners, the UK and USA, ,are capable of staging a multi brigade exercise, without NATO participation. While both Finland and Sweden are non-aligned countries, they  have forged close one-on-one ties with USA and the UK.

As the NATO membership is not a short term solution for either Finland or Sweden, this bilateral co-operation demonstrates that they are capable of both receiving and giving military assistance to each other and partners from overseas.

Comments

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  9. As it removes all the external barriers to expose the inner hair, the purifier does its work by penetrating deep into the scalp, hair follicles, and hair shafts to dissolve and remove all the toxins and impurities. Finally, the conditioner adds sheen to your hair and controls the frizzes and tangles, making your hair smoother and more manageable. Note: But unlike the Aloe Toxin Rid Shampoo, the Ultra Clean Shampoo will not help you clear the hair follicle drug test on its own. When you use it as a part of your thorough cleansing and detoxifying process, it definitely helps. But it might take longer. However, you should be prepared for a follicle test as well Visit: https://www.urineworld.com/

    ReplyDelete
  10. I really appreciate your blog topic.
    Thank you so much for sharing such an great article.
    myassignmenthelp

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quick guide to identifying the Russian tanks Part 1: Updated Dec. 2021

  As most of the western nations have reduced their inventories to a few or mostly one type of main battle tank model in their active inventories, the myriad of tank platforms and distinct versions employed by the Russian armed forces may feel overwhelming. Here is a quick guide to identifying Russian MBTs. When you come across an image (or the actual thing), follow the steps to identify it properly. Updated 15.12.2021: T-90 modifications Family of the tank Russian Armed Forces currently operates, or at least storage, the following tank platforms/families: -            T-55 (<2000 in storage) -            T-62 (2000 in storage) -            T-64 (2000 in storage) -            T-72 (2000 active duty, 8000 in storage) -            T-80 (2000 active duty, 5000 in storage) -            T-90 (350 active duty, 600  in storage) -            T-14 (20 in field testing) So how can you identify what type of a tank are you looking at? There are two features that can be used to distinguishing th

The Russian ”Tank Circus”

The Russian media has published several articles about the latest round of live fire drills by the Russian tank forces. The first brief mentions caught my attention as they described a new tank tactic based on the experiences of the Russian expeditionary force in Syria.  T-72B1 at Pogonovo (Photo: © RIA Novosti / Andrey Stanavov) The details about the new tactic were scarce but there were mentions of continuous movement and a steady barrage of main gun fire. On 4th of July, the RIA published an in depth article about the 20th combined Arms Army’s field training of the new tactics (Translated to English by Sputnik ) The “Tank Carousel” is simply a drill in which a tanks of a formation, be it a platoon or a company, move around a set perimeter firing the from vantage points or openings in a berm and then move off to safety while another one moves in to the same spot to fire.  This does allow the unit to maintain sustained 125 mm tank gun fire at a target area. Another

Russian Tanks 2022: Thicker and Blinder

  Since the all out invasion of Ukraine the Russian army has lost at least 1700 tanks. This has caused the Russian army some supply problems, when they are re-forming their mauled units. Fighting has also revealed the need for upgrades on most of the Russian tank designs. The most obvious issues with the existing Russian tank fleet are the insufficient armor protection, the lack of reverse mobility and the vulnerability of the automatic loaders and their ammunition carousels. Although the last one has gifted us the sport of Turret Throwing. T-72B obr 2022 tanks Very little can be done for the mobility with the limitations of the existing transmissions and the autoloaders can’t really be replaced with better designs or human loaders either. The armor part on the other hand can be improved during the activation and refurbishment of the deep stored Soviet-era tanks. The first new design that appeared in the battlefield was an upgraded T-72B3 with additional armo,r mimicking the T-90M layo