About 1,000 troops from NATO and Sweden are accompanying their 6,500 Finnish counterparts in the Northern Forest exercise, which this year takes place from May 27 to June 2 at the Rovajärvi training ground in northern Finland.

Finland’s accession to NATO doubled the length of the alliance’s border with Russia. After the Russian military invaded Ukraine, Finland decided to end decades of neutrality and a non-aligned military stance and last month became NATO’s 31st member.

From the Rovajärvi training ground, which is about two hours from the Russian border and is one of the largest in all of Europe, US Lieutenant General Gregory Anderson stressed that the US is ready to defend Finland. “The US military is here for joint exercises with our new NATO allies… We will do our part to protect Finland if something happens,” he said, among other things.

The American soldiers used MLRS missile systems, the Finns were mainly engaged in firing from Leopard 2A6 tanks, the Swedes and Norwegians developed the CV90 fighting vehicles, and the British maneuvered the Warrior tanks.

Sweden hopes to join NATO in time for the NATO summit in Lithuania in mid-July. The commander of the Swedish forces at the Northern Forest exercise stressed that his country is ready to defend neighboring Finland. “We have developed a plan of action in case we need to defend Finland,” said Lieutenant General Karl Engelbrechtson.

Finnish Colonel Janne Makitalo downplayed the importance of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in wartime conditions and, citing the war in Ukraine, said that “Every month Russia can destroy about 10,000 Ukrainian UAVs.” They may look impressive on YouTube, he says, but they are easy to spot on the battlefield.

Source: APE-MPE, Reuters.