The Finnish Air Force has begun to work out an extremely important element of maintaining the combat capability of its aviation, which is decentralization to spare airfields on highways.
The official name of the maneuvers is Baana-22, which involve training for the deployment of engineering and tactical support on the routes, as well as the preparation of ground and flight personnel.
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F/A-18 and Hawk training aircraft and about 200 people (of them 70 are reservists) are involved in the exercises.
The E75 highway near the city of Joutsa in the central part of the country was closed for training and cleared from the obstacles.
An important element of training is taking-off and landing practice both during the day and at night. And the training itself, which began on September 26, should end on the evening of September 29.
Thus, Finland conducts active training of flight crews and ground personnel for the real conditions of war, where the main task of the first minutes of the war will be the distribution of aircraft to reserve sites.
This exercise proves once again that the operation of aircraft from runways is not an exclusive feature of only certain types of fighters, such as the Gripen. Defense Express prepared a separate detailed material about Gripen’s operation features on highways in Sweden.
But the Baana-22 military exercise appears to be just one element of the preparations for a larger exercise that will cover most of the country and is called Ruska-22. They are about to start on October 3 and last five days. 3,700 people will be involved, of them 2,400 are reservists.
According to the Ministry of Defense of Finland, the scenario of the exercise involves the division into two sides: one of them will work on anti-aircraft defense measures, and another will try to break it.
Defense Express reminds that the Finnish Air Force, according to Military Balance, has about 2,000 regular personnel, the main force is two 62 F/A-18C/D aircraft.
But Helsinki has already decided to replace them with 64 F-35A Block 4 fighters. The deal, which was concluded in February of this year, is worth 8.4 billion euros. Delivery of the first F-35s to Finland is scheduled for 2026, and the retirement of the F/A-18s is scheduled for 2030.
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