I just skimmed trough the Australian military topic and I thought it would be intresting for myself to find out what people think/know of the Finnish military

It is ofcourse a small miltary because there are only 5 million people in the country but 82% of the males do their military service so that is of course a pretty high number.

But althought the budget is small, I belive the miltary is very effective, the Finnish Marines/Coastal Jaegers always arrange in the summer an field exercise against Swedish Marines, and the Finns usually win, but then again men with long hair get hair nets in the Swedish military...

The Finnish peace keeping forces, I have heard also have got a pretty good international reputation...

So if anybody has anything to comment about our military, please do..

Ive seen the finnish military website before and you seem to have an interesting mix of western, soviet and indigenous technology. The vehicles made by patria seem to be very good and popular with other countries.

Originally Posted by Shadowalker

Ive seen the finnish military website before and you seem to have an interesting mix of western, soviet and indigenous technology. The vehicles made by patria seem to be very good and popular with other countries.

Would this be the website you were talking about?

http://www.mil.fi/english/index.dsp

On paper it seems like a fairly well balanced force with a great deal of history to live up to.

Yea thats the site.

Think that site is a bit out of date as i believe the Leopard 2A4 has been bought to replace the T72. Id be interested to know if the soviet weaponary will be replaced fromwestern europe, or if finland will still buy equipment from russia.

I have a real passion about small countries (population wise) with small, well equipped, professional armies that get the job done. Countries that pick quality over quantity, so i'm also interested to read anything about the Finnish Military's past operations. Plus that site posted above was pretty cool...

Rich.

I guess we're still bying some russian weaponry today, the BUK-M1 I think was the most recent russian weapons system that we got, nonetheless most old soviet made weapons are being phased out such as the 23mm AA-gun "Sergei" and I suppose the BMPs too and the T-72. I assume that our assault rifle will still remain in service as it is for years to come atleast I haven't heard much complaints for changing or upgrading but time will tell.

yea the sako rifle doesnt appear to need to be replaced, it seems to have the design of an AK-47 but with western technology. Is the 7.62mm calibre needed for the finnish terrain?

Originally Posted by Shadowalker

Is the 7.62mm calibre needed for the finnish terrain?

yes so they say but then again Sweden has identical terrain and uses 5.56mm caliber. I think for us the 7.62x39mm catridge does its job and is an ok round for its intended purpose after all most firefights here would take place in range less than 200 meters.
So until something very revolutionary comes in small arms technology I don't think we're looking for a replacement for the sako assault rifle.

Honestly I haven't heard much of them since the second world war, so I really can't make much of an opinion.