800 Swedish troops under Finnish command in northern Finland

Last week, a readiness check was conducted in northern Sweden, however, as it was coming to a close, the units received a new deployment order. An operational transport was carried out from the Lomben shooting range near the Swedish town of Kalix, across the Finnish border, to the Rovajärvi shooting range, outside the town of Rovaniemi. The aim is to test the joint operational planning in the event of a military attack.

"Once here in Rovaniemi you are reminded of the history of the Swedish Volunteer Corps, and the volunteers who fought here during the Finnish Winter War. To follow in their footsteps is cause for reflection", says Lieutenant Colonel Bengt Fransson, member of the exercise command.

He underscores that this is exactly what Finnish Swedish cooperation stands for:

"Together we must contribute to stability and security in the High North, and reinforce our joint capability to face various types of threat".

Finnish Brigadier General Manu Tuominen is pleased with the readiness exercise.

"As it is a readiness exercise, we were all a little taken aback at first, but the basic planning that we had already done together with the Norrbotten Brigade, our Ranger Brigade and the Kajanaland Brigade, meant that it was quite easy to quickly gather the units and start the joint exercise".