Tag: finland

The US Army Europe and Africa on Monday launched what are being described as NATO’s largest artillery drills, dubbed Lightning Strike 24, and held in Finland’s northernmost region of Lapland.

The exercise involves over 5,000 military personnel from the US and 28 Allied and partner nations, and will feature over 130 weapons systems, aimed at showing off the alliance’s field artillery capability. But ironically this comes at a moment many Western nations have complained that their artillery shell stockpiles are dwindling to due supplying them to Ukraine over the past 2+ years of war.

The drills are expected to last until November 28, and encompass other locations beyond Finland, including Germany, Poland, Romania, and Estonia.

But it is the Finland portion of the drill likely to be most closely watched from Moscow, given the large Lapland area lies very near the Russian Murmansk region border, and north of the Arctic Circle.

“This is a good example of how our field artillery combined with Allied capabilities forms powerful defense in northern Finland and NATO,” the exercise commander, Colonel Janne Mäkitalo, has stated.

He also hailed that the drills will demonstrate how allied support can come to Finland “very quickly” if needed in the event of a conflict or threat.

Most of the NATO troops will be concentrated in the Finnish portion of the drills, some 3,600 military personnel out of the total 5,000.

The US Army is the most sizeable component, according to an official press release:

Major participating units and organizations include U.S Army Europe and Africa, U.S. Army 56th Artillery Command, U.S. Army V Corps, U.S. Army 21st Theater Sustainment Command, U.S. Army 41st Field Artillery Brigade, U.S. Army 10th Mountain Division, U.S. Army 1st Cavalry Division, U.S. Army 4th Security Assistance Forces Brigade, U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division, the Finnish Army, NATO Multinational Division Northeast, and NATO Allied Rapid Reaction Corps.

Finland and Sweden are NATO’s newest members, with Finland formally gaining entry April 4, 2023. Importantly, Finland shares a 1,340-kilometre (830 mi) border with Russia, and Moscow has warned that this could result of the greater militarization of the Baltic regions.

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According to Finnish TV channel MTV, this proposal has already been approved.

The Finnish Defense Ministry proposed on Friday to place the headquarters of the NATO ground forces in city of Mikkeli near the border with Russia.

“Finland’s defence administration proposes Mikkeli, the town where the Finnish Army Command is based, as the location for NATO’s Multi Corps Land Component Command (MCLCC),” the statement read.

Finland joined NATO on April 4, 2023, along with Sweden. In an interview with Dmitry Kiselev, Vladimir Putin stated that the accession of these countries to the alliance was a pointless step in terms of their national interests, as Russian troops and strike systems would now appear near their borders.

Russia has repeatedly pointed out NATO’s unprecedented activity near its western borders in recent years. The alliance claims it is expanding initiatives as part of “deterring Russian aggression.”

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On Wednesday, Russia said it would respond to Finland’s move to allow the US access to military bases inside the Nordic nation, which joined NATO last year and shares an over 800-mile border with Russia.

Under a new Defense Cooperation Agreement that was ratified by Finland’s parliament on Monday, the US can access 15 bases in Finland, including a border guard base only 20 miles from the Russian border.

“I can only confirm that Russia will not leave unanswered the NATO military buildup on our border, which threatens the security of the Russian Federation,” said Andrei Nastasin, a deputy spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry.

“We will also take the necessary measures, including of a military-technical nature, to counter aggressive decisions by Finland, as well as its NATO allies,” Nastasin added.

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