Vantage Point North

For the Russian armed forces 2014 was the year of snap drills and the Ukraine war. 2015 brought in the Syrian expeditionary force and larger readiness exercises. 2016 saw the resurgence of army level operations and strategic relocation training. In 2017 the most notable change is the focus on the amphibious operations and river crossings. Russian Naval infantry BTR-82A APC:s and a Zubr class landing craft Background The Russian naval infantry was established by Peter the great in 1705. The naval infantry has been subordinated to the Russian Navy and it has never been treated as an individual service like the United States Marine Corps. While the quality of the Russian Naval infantry has varied wildly along the centuries it established an elite status during the World War 2 . The importance of the Soviet Naval Infantry grew steadily and some elements of it, such as the parachute battalions, were considered equal to the VDV airborne troops. After the Cold War the Russian mili...

A Finnish energy company Fortum has been negotiating with the German E.ON to buy a German energy company called Uniper. The deal has been controversial in Finland as it would include a large number of coal fired power plants that do not fit the Fortum’s strategy of becoming a sustainable and green energy producer. As 50,8 % of Fortum is owned by the Finnish government, the deal has an obvious political angle. (Photo: Nord Stream) The most disturbing aspect of the deal is that Uniper owns a 950 Million € share of the Russo-German gas pipeline project Nord Stream 2 . The Finnish minister responsible for directing the state owned companies is the Center Party’s Mika Lintilä. He stated that he didn’t have any information about the Uniper’s share of the gas pipeline. He also stated that the Finnish government would not veto the deal even if it would link Finland to the controversial pipeline and Russian geopolitical interests. Finland, unlike the Baltic States and Sweden,...

The Finnish Air Force, Ilmavoimat, has begun it’s largest exercise of the year, the Ruska 17 , today. Exercise focuses on training an integrated air-defense force to fight against an unnamed peer-level adversary. It involves everything from base security and logistics to the advanced command centers and fighter jets. Finnish F/A-18C and Swedish JAS 39C (photo: Ilmavoimat) The Ruska 17 will include roughly 5100 conscripts, reservists and professional soldiers, 30 Boeing F/A-18C/D Hornet fighters, 14 BAE Hawk trainers, CASA C-295M transports, Pilatus PC-12NG and Learjet 35 A/S liaison aircrafts from the Finnish Air Force. Additionally the Finnish army will provide some troops and an unspecified number of the NH-90 helicopters. Most Air Force reservists don't actually fly (photo: Ilmavoimat) The Swedish Air Force is participating in the annual RUSKA-series of exercises for the second time. In 2016 Swedes operated as an aggressor unit and the two air forces fought each ...

Even though the Zapad2017 drill, that rehearsed assault through the Baltics to relieve the Kaliningrad enclave, has ended, the Russian armed forces are not resting on their laurels. Today Russia announced that it will begin a control check that will include all military units in all of the military branches. Photo: Konstantin Semenov  The control checks will be conducted in two phases. During the first phase of the tests over 300 active duty formations will be brought to combat readiness and tested by the inspectors. These checks will happen before the 15 th of October. The checks will be held in 120 training areas across the Russian federation. There will be a significant number of tactical level exercises with troops relocating from their bases to the training areas. The amount of ground forces combat units involved can reach up to 120 000 soldiers . The only exception to this rule are the units that participated in the Zapad2017 exercise, these units will be i...