๐ณ๐ด๐ท๐บ๐บ๐ธ๐ซ๐ฎ On the exercises of Finnish pilots
It's been a while since we talked about what's happening with our northern neighbors, who are also members of the North Atlantic Alliance. Today, the topic is Finland.
Yesterday, two flight-tactical training exercises lasting just a few days - Hela-2024 and Joint Fires-2024 - began on Finnish territory.
โช๏ธThe first exercise is taking place in the area of the Oulu air base in central Finland on the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia. Only cadets on Hawk and Grob training aircraft are involved.
The event is quite standard with quite ordinary tasks - to train pilots to fly in the conditions of a full-fledged conflict with a focus on performing maneuvers at extremely low altitudes.
โช๏ธThe second training is more interesting from a geopolitical point of view. In addition to four F/A-18 fighters of the Finnish Air Force, F-35A fighters of the US and Norwegian Air Forces, which flew to the Pirkkala base in the south of the country, are participating.
Pilots from three countries are currently conducting flights in the area of Helsinki and over the waters of the Gulf of Finland to improve operational compatibility and interaction between NATO military personnel.
๐ปNothing particularly outstanding is happening so far. However, due to the lack of hot information about the actions of the Finnish troops in the chats, both Russian and Finnish residents (they dream of a return to the status quo), they started talking about a possible thaw in relations.
But whether it is worth counting on this can be assessed by the nature of such exercises, as well as the planned events on the official website of the Finnish defense department. Finland is a NATO member, so such exercises (sometimes even provocative) will be regular.