Are Finland & Sweden Prepared for War?
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- čas přidán 14. 05. 2024
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Finland and Sweden are applying to join the NATO military alliance and Russia is none too happy. What are the pro's and con's to joining and NATO? How soon will they be added to the 30 member states? What will the Russian Armed Forces response be to what they see as NATO expansionism? In this video we try our best to answer some of these geopolitical questions.
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Hey spare parts army thanks for watching! Looks like I've misjudged Finland's conscripts apparently they are better trained than I may have given them credit for. Thanks for the feedback! Play Conflict of Nations for FREE on PC, Android or iOS:
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Best not to join which will enrage russia and they will be NATO cannon fodder in WW3.
I will support them joining it but my biggest challenge would be turkey veto their application, how do you propose they can fix this?
I have a question can my country Spain can protect and help nato it would be nice if u can tell me pros and cons
@@r.a.wdefenceministry4489 you did slavery.
@@karlyo6937 do some war with turkey. Right?
Fellow infantry guy here. Got a chance to hang out with Finnish and Swedish troops in Afghanistan. Great people.
They didn’t need to deploy and help out but they did , that says a lot about their people
Did you try their mre's?
@@Taskandpurpose hey chris you ever encountered a hungarian while in service? What you think of them?
@@u2beuser714 regretfully no. Did eat in there chow hall though, that was pretty good.
@@Taskandpurpose no it doesn't. The people didn't choose that. You trans-ing away from being American.
You underestimate Finland's troop count, Finland has around 900 000 troops in reserves, not only 280 000. SO it's 280 000 wartime strength, troops that are combat ready right off the bat if need be, and 900 000 reservists to filter in after that.
It's beyond me how this wasn't covered in the video
@@arandomdude9588 I don't wanna sound rude but people usually just glimpse at the wikipedia page and see "oh 24k active, 280k wartime- okay." when the 24k is just stuff like peacekeepers who have been deployed to numerous missions across the middle east, people in charge of training the +20k annual conscripts/recruits etc.
I mean the reserve number is on the page as well but you see those two first as I remember it
Yeah that is what I was about to say.
Thank you.
280k wartime troops at the moment with plenty of reserves for rotation. Considering the logistics on the russian side of the border, any war of attrition, would massively favor Finland, not only the logistics advantage of Finland, but the fact that every man on the line has at least 2 guys to rotate them out of the "front" regularly.
@@snubbull7309 well he could have clicked on personnel
I'm swedish and I know damn well that my finish brother is never ever gonna give up. If there is anyone I want beside me in tough situation it has to be my brothers in Finland.
Через несколько лет в финляндии все будут говорить по русски
@@xza5687 well... that is just crazy symbols that does not mean anything to me... do to that I don't use crazy symbols 🤣
@@kingvii7250 Crazy simbols? What about arabic letters? Sweden is full them. You will be muslim country soon 🤣🤣🤣
And we will help you if you ever need us!
Aye brotha
You said Finnish conscripts are poorly motivated. When you have Russia as your neighbour you are always highly motivated. Todays conscripts and reserves all had grandfathers or greatgrandfathers who fought in the two latest wars in 1939- 40 and 41-44. On every churchyard in Finland there is a stone, the heroes graven, with the names of the men both very young and older who gave their lives for Finland and its independence. The Finnish SISU/ fighting spirit still lives on for ever.
88% of males are willing to participate in the defense of Finland.
Meanwhile in the United States... "72% of Americans would _not_ fight for their country, poll shows" is the first result that shows up on Google.
That said I think the situations are not really comparable. The United States is surrounded by two oceans so they can't even wrap their heads around the idea that someone could come to them and change their lives for the worse forever.
This was a bit wierd from "Task & Purpose". For Russians and Westerns maybe not well known. But very well known for Northern Europe and Baltics. People of those countries will give their lives to fight filthy kremlin forces, no question asked. We do not like Kreml and we hate its world view into the core!
A couple of comments on the Finnish military:
1) I have no idea to what the video refers to as "200 logistics trucks and 60 main logistics trucks", but well to me it implies that the Finnish military has 260 trucks. I couldn't easily find "easy figures" for how many trucks the military has, but the number is significantly higher. Probably something like 3k+ with all the shit in the storage as well. Hell, we had Soviet Zils hanging around on one field in my brigade when I was in the army some years ago and if they have kept those, they have kept every single Finnish produced truck since the wayback times as well. And even that number probably is somewhere around at least 1-2k. Probably during war time they would confiscate additional civilian vehicles as well, but the amount of material the Finnish military has for land warfare is at least to some degree tied to that "280k troops during war time". The Finnish army, like probably all armies, is also very good at hoarding stuff in warehouses. As corruption is not really a problem in Finland (at least in this sense), I am quite confident that those trucks are also in reality in the storage houses and someone probably also every now and then checks their condition. In terms of the rail roads, probably all militaries use them to transport stuff but I haven't at least heard before that it would be the basis of the Finnish military.
2) Finland spends 350-450 million euros on maintenance annually, not 350-450 thousand euros on maintenance (1e=~1.05USD at the moment).
3) Finnish military employs about 12.500 people. Out of these, around 7500-8000 are CAREER soldiers and rest are civilian employees. That 3k figure maybe comes from the amount of CAREER officers in the Finnish army, which indeed is quite close to 3k. There are about 20k conscripts all the time in the military as well, on top of that 12.5k.
3) Finland has a mandatory conscription for men aged 18-29 (voluntary for women). Around 70 % of men go through with the conscription (165-347 days in the military). In total about 900k Finnish people (mostly men, around 10k women are also in the reserve) are in the reserve (officers and NCOs are in the reserve until they are 61, grunts until they are 51). University etc... don't give you an excuse to not go to the army. Getting "not fit for duty"-papers is the easiest way to avoid going to the army if one so desires. The other relatively popular option is to go the civilian service for 347 days. Going to prison is also an alternative, there you'll spend 173 days (although nowadays it will be house arrest, not actual prison time usually).
4) That 280k is more or less the ballpark number for what would be called to service in case of war. When I was a kid, the figure was presented at 300k, then it fell to 230k and now it is at 280k.The potential pool is however that 900k reservists and the army takes what they need and want before and during the war. When my dad was in the army during the Cold War, the official figure for war time strength varied somewhere between 500-700k. In the Continuation War (1941-44), around 500k were at the front at the height of the mobilization. So the figures are quite fluid and based on the circumstances and the need to say something besides "we will adapt".
5) Motivation of conscripts and Finns is quite high, the most recent polling data indicate that 83 % of the Finnish population think that Finland should be defended militarily in case of war. In a Finnish mind, this means should we fight against Russia. In Ukraine similar polls indicated about 50-60 % willingness to fight just prior to the Russian invasion on February. I guess that has already given them a relatively good and motivated fighting force? In Finland these figures have been relatively stable for decades, usually hovering somewhere between 70-80 %.
6) Conscripts are probably not as trained for urban warfare, explosive ordnance disposal etc... very specific military tasks. Maneuvering in groups might be less drilled as in professional militaries. This is partly dealt with (mandatory or non-mandatory) repetition training and voluntary additional service after conscription (which is relatively popular).
7) Conscripts fulfill certain positions significantly better than career soldiers. Finland won the latest NATO Locked Shield Cyber Defense competition. My guess is that the victory came not with career soldiers but with conscripts. Most of the nerds who work in cybersecurity companies as their day jobs and are best the country has to offer are also in the military reserve. And take part in repetition exercises as well. Same goes for electronic warfare and other specialized tasks. People who would be working with those tasks during war are the best the country has to offer and not the best the army was able to recruit.
8) Finnish history with Russia is quite complex and contains a significant amount of "finlandization". We lost in the WW2 against Russia, kind of lived as the capitalist puppet of the USSR for 50+ years (we didn't get annexed), got used to how things are and slept through the time when Baltics and others with "more intimate relations" with Russia slipped into NATO. With political will we could have joined NATO in the early 2000s as well, but our political leadership back then was very harshly against it. It is easy to be hindsight biased, but well, we mostly have gotten along with Russia until now. The shock of the war in Ukraine, the destruction, rape and killings was quite a big eye-opener for the bulk of the population. As there has always been kind of this eternal belief that Russia might come over the border at some point again, the minds of the people regarding NATO changed extremely fast. Also, there is really no upsides for working or getting along with Russia anymore so therefore there is really no downside to joining NATO.
Phenomenal comments...
Putin has just proved everyone that Russia still poses a threat.
And mainly threat to its neighbor, by how they react, and how they conduct relationship.
Rather go down with your ego, than stand and admit you wrong, and recover relationship.
I agree with most you say, but I'll challenge your claim that the conscripts are motivated. I'm talking here now the young men serving their 6-12 month compulsory service, not the reservists who have already done it. My experience is a couple of decades back, but I'd be very surprised if something had fundamentally changed in between.
We're talking about 19-20 year old men who are forced to spend 6-12 months doing things that they would not otherwise do. They'd rather went to university or started their work career but now have to spend this time running around in forest for a ridiculously low pay. You do your things in an exemplary way and the only reward the army has to offer is leave. It should tell you something that the most priced reward in the organisation is the permit to leave it for a few days.
In my time the only place in the conscription service that I met actually motivated people was the officer school as the people there were of course selected by the army based on their skills and motivation. It's of course possible that the army has found some magic way to motivate the conscripts that didn't exist then but I highly doubt it.
Tldr: Finnish reservists are highly motivated and ready to defend the country (I don't doubt the poll numbers). Finnish conscripts are young lads forced to do things against their will for almost no pay and are not very motivated just like nobody else would be in that position.
@@srelma motivation during service time and motivation for defending ones country are two different things. I would agree with you that during the conscript service the motivation varies wildly, but if a war would break out, every single person would shut up and go to the front lines.
@@rootstone9883 that's exactly my point. The Finnish conscripts are not magic people who are motivated to do things that they wouldn't otherwise be doing against extremely low pay.
If they would, there would be no need for the entire institution of conscription (=forced military service) but you could run the military on the basis of voluntary service.
30k ready in hours.
280k in days.
And after that, the rest 900k reservists when/if needed .
Greetings from Finland 🇫🇮
aika tarkka vastaus
Sweden and Finland have very close relations, like all Nordic countries do, but Finland is a bit special for Sweden because Finland was the eastern half of Sweden for 700 years. They are our brothers.
Tackar för det! Nylands brigad i Dragsvik III-84.
They say Finns are the "little brother" of Sweden. And you are our sisters 😉 With all respect and love. 🙂
Yes Im swedish and our summerhouse is just on the other side of the baltic sea. And Åland is inbetween. It feels just like around the corner
If Russia trying to take Finland I go over the border from Sweden and fight with my Finish brothers against russia. We stay strong, we are organized! russia have alot but they running improvise!
Thanks bro but we got our lil sister Åland cause we protect she. Just humor u know, vai oletko samaa mieltä
I'm Swedish but men on my fathers side fought in the finnish-russian wars. Swedish and Finnish sometimes make jokes about each other but we are brothers when it comes to the Russian threat.
I'd call it a brotherly love. Yes, we make fun of the Swedes and you're our nemesis in the hockey rink, but you're still a good neighbour to us and the best friend we have in terms of international relations.
In crisis any brotherhood will do. But at peacetime swedish occupation still color finns perception of current swedes. Finns have minority comblex against sweden and allways tries to be stronger or better than a swede. Swedes dont even realise this as their finnish immigrants was hardworking no question asked reliable force, very much different than actual finn
Just had a miltary excercise with Finnish Jäegers. After 3 days of mock battles, I have to say Finnish are extremely well trained, motivated and will absolutely destroy the enemy if Russia invades.
The technological difference is just huge.
@Kobayashi Maru M.A.D.
Was it a mad Russian troll haha
Do you know if those specific troops were conscripts or career soldiers?
@@TheRomanRuler Finnish Jäeger reservists
@@TheRomanRuler most likely conscripts, career soldiers are mainly instructors.
I lived 5 years in Finland and I need to say, geography of this country is dream of every defending force. It's rocky terrain everywhere and a lot of lakes and rivers. Geography is often forgotten when we speak about wars, but it is something you can't appreciate enough.
They didn't call the Finland Rally the Rally of the 1000 Lakes for nothing!
If certain country east of Finland would want to attack Helsinki, they would have to go trough the pretty narrow land between Saimaa and The Baltic Sea.
@@huuskari174 Their best way would be highway from Vaalimaa to Helsinki. Except there's a lot of bridges. Bridges that, in Finland at least, are easily destroyed.
Haha, we are not in middle age sending contingent and horses, it's 2022, soldiers replaced with next gen weapons that doesn't count what the terrains look like, nukes war head doesn't take accounts if it's mountain or oceans.. 😂
As a Swede/Finn and part of Swedish Homeguard I'd like to emphasize the fact that we're trained and give orders to fight guerilla war, regroup and make decisions even when the rest of the Defense fails or command chain breaks. We know our home forests and the population living there. Our order is to never surrender.
It's not just an order to never surrender and fend off the invader, it's identity. Even if Finland would surrender Finns would not.
Do we need? No we don't that anymore.
I like that. Cooperating as well as we can do together.
Damned right! Exactly what I understood and felt during and after SissiRUK K195! - Kaveria ei jätetä!!@@sotakoira1390
Finland and Sweden complement each other well
Finland can focus on its ground forces to hold Russia at bay
While Sweden has a strong navy and modern air force that can quickly come to Finland's aid
Thus, Finland's small population doesn't have to spend heavily on naval and air power
During the Winter War, a Soviet scout unit was advancing up a pass between two large rock outcrops, when they heard over their radio, "Hey Reds! One of our Finnish reservists is stronger than ten of your fighters."
The Soviet scouting team requested permission to show the Finnish farmers who was in charge, and were granted permission to proceed.
They were never heard from again.
The Soviet commander sent 100 men in an expeditionary force up the same pass the following week. They received the same radio call, this time, "Hey Ivan! One of our men is stronger than 100 of yours! Come and see!"
The Soviet commander steeled himself and ordered his force through the pass, but they too disappeared.
Another week later, the Soviet commander and his main force had arrived at the same mountain pass behind their advanced forces.
When they were settling down to establish a refueling depot for armored vehicles, command received another radio call.
"Hey! Listen up Soviets! One Finn is stronger than one thousand of your communists!"
This made the commander's blood boil.
At once, he mustered one thousand soldiers and ordered them to advance up the pass in fighting formation to eradicate anything on the other side.
After three hours of gunfire and explosions, one Soviet soldier finally crawled back through the pass.
As he was being carried back to the first aid tent, the commander stood by his side to comfort the brave Soviet soldier who had survived such a calamity.
The survivor looked up at him, and with horror in his eyes, said, "Don't send any more men Comrade Commissar, it's a trap! There are two of them!"
LOL very good one:)
And 1943 round 2 you didn't speak about that one right? 😂🤣
LMAO. ty for this.
LOL
@@marczhu7473 1943 was a quiet year in the Continuation War. Why?
The difference in Finland’s conscripts is a large portion of their population still trains even after their service. Entire families of adults train together and are skilled at winter warfare. Whereas Russian conscripts tend to be young, lower class socioeconomic status, and poorly trained. Finland’s people are as much of an asset at their border and equipment.
A similar post-conscription training thing also exists in Russia - it's called "Военные сборы"
Poorly trained? Young? At least They have the real war experience. In the winter war ppl made the same comment and in the end 1/10 Finland became Russia.
This guy thinks Finland was invaded in ww2 lol. Typical American
@@yeetian2774 With a 5:1 casualty ratio, it was a pyrrhic victory at best
@@Alex.af.Nordheim yeah, Soviet Union lost way more lives than Finland. If Russia repeats the tragical history then soon Finland will once again join Russia Empire….😅
There was a media press conference between Swedens military officials and Finlands military officials. One reporter asked "How will you able communicate when you speak 2 completely differend languages" Both nations officials looked at each other until the Finnish official said in English "How do you think we can manage" Swedens official replied " I don't know" then they looked back at the reported who asked the question.
Other funny was is that 2 junior sergeants were talking about the fact that what happens if we don't get attacked from the east. Senior sergeant heard this and said "You're right, you'll never know if Russia decides to attack from Sweden."
I have my highest regard and admiration to our Finnish brothers/sisters and proud to have such close relations. They should not be taken lightly. /from Sweden
Sant. Fastän jag är inte upprymd att sammanföra till NATO, en möjlighet om gemensamt försvaret med Sverige känns jättekul, om ett krig utbryter.
As someone that lives on Gotland, many of us never liked the idea of scaling down the defense on the island in the early 2000's. While a land-based attack on Sweden is very unlikely with Finland between us and Russia, Gotland has always been considered as the most likely battleground for any conflict between Sweden and Russia on Swedish territory. The Americans call it the Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier, making it important as a staging area for potential conflicts in the Baltic Sea. We also know fairly well how an attack on Gotland from the Russians would play out, with the marines stationed in Kaliningrad and VDV in Pskov. As you point out, Swedish defense doctrine and weapons are tailored to sinking ships and shooting down airplanes, with the added feature of blowing up armor.
I'm with you - In a NATO Scenario, Bornholms strategical value would also rise, being basicly the island, protecting the Kiel Channel and the danish Skagerrak to the east, so mostly the entire logistical ways into the baltic sea... Defacto those islands would not be able to defeat, when Sweden joins NATO - just combining the Swedish and German baltic fleets with their high attack-submarine quantity and quality would force Russia to stay in harbour.
Until they train some new ones i dont think there are very many VDV left anywhere.
They were last seen fertilising a field of sunflowers near Hostomel.
@@garethpetley6715 No, it will take a while for Russia to replace it's depleted forces that would otherwise have been used to attack Finland and Sweden. The marine units from Kaliningrad has apparently suffered quite heavy losses in Ukraine as well. Meanwhile, the 200th mechanized brigade usually stationed in Pechenga near Finland was moved to Kharkiv. I think we all know how that went. So at the moment, Russia isn't exactly in the best shape start something in the Baltic. But that won't last forever, which is why we needed to join NATO while there's a window of opportunity.
As a person also from gotland and generally anti nato but will make an exception now that putin turned out to be a fascist imperialist: I was back then and still am against the militarization of our island because I dont want it to get fucking nuked.
wasnt there quite a few air incidents in this area during cold war? so sweden had big airforce for a reason as soviet union harassed this area often.
Finnish artillery is famous for being incredibly accurate. It doesn't make a difference if the tube was forged in Soviet Union, it matters where it's pointed and what the fire support specialists do.
I think if history has taught us anything it's that Finns love to excel in conventional war.
Also, barrel fit and finish effect accuracy. If Finland has an arsenal somewhere tweaking, lapping, and tuning the barrels, and manufacturing ammunition to high standards of quality tolerance, it would be fairly easy for them to exceed expectations by a large margin.
I noticed a few years ago that Finland is now noted as perhaps the best gunpowder manufacturer in the entire world. I recently noticed that the Finnish manufacturer of military ammunition is now considered the very best in the entire world for small arms, heavy weapons, and cannon. Combine that with SAAB- (my memory just blanked) in Sweden, and NATO has every reason to want to secure these two countries.
I expect the Finns have reworked the Russian artillery guns like they did the Russian rifles they used in WW2 (Winter War, Continuation War).
You ppl are deluded our society's both in sweden and finland and armies aint gona fight with russia,we dont want our cities destroyed,go find another proxy to annoy russia
So, @@dimitrisgregan553 are you saying Russia invaded Ukraine and a dozen other countries in the last ten years because those people annoyed them. So what do you propose all these countries should have done, be like Belarus?
Swedens the only one who managed to lock on to the blackbird with a missile if I’m not mistaken! The Nimitz story is so insane too, the US sub hunters apparently got so angry and frustrated that they wanted to give up. Also one of the only few to “sink” a Nimitz in a game. Quite interesting.
Well Half of Folk Play Hockey..( winter is Dark ) Other Half Sit and think..And Some come up With Great Shit...Thats Scandinavia.:)
I am a Finn (living in Southern California, but still). I was not in favor of Finland joining NATO. But when Russia invaded Ukraine, I changed my mind. Now I am very much in favor.
same story with everyone else here :D
NATO is the new evil in the world. Good to know Finland will be part of that axis of evil.
most cowards are, no just joking lol it is a wise move -and truly there's safety in numbers
Neither Finland or Sweden or NATO would initiate an attack on Russia. Defensive capability is the only relevant issue.
People seem to willingly forget how much of a disadvantage an invading force is actually at. We like to make fun of them like we think we could do it better.
@@viktoriyaserebryakov2755 Invasion = Overwhelming force and logistics. Which NATO is best at both. Is no doubt NATO would have destroyed the Ukrainian military in under a month. So yes if we means NATO or even just USA, we could do better.
There is no country that compares to USA in a conventional military force. Alone USA accounts for 38 percent of all military spending. I could go on and on about how dominate USA and NATO are militarily over the rest of the world. But really who cares. None of the real military powers in the world can ever fight each other or God forbid invade each other. It would just end with nuclear annihilation. Fact is Russia could have zero conventional forces and NATO would never set foot in Russia because of nukes.
@@hvmetalwarmonger178 I mean NATO also has a much stronger military and much-much more into spending.
@@hvmetalwarmonger178 I mean, most of NATO doesn't give two shits about even visiting Russia, let alone invading. Let them keep their retarded backwater s**thole of a country for all I care.
No, NATO will, i don't think you know what joining N A T O means.
Finlands population is highly motivated to fight Russia. They all grew up listening to their grandparents who fought them in the winter war and continuation war.
As for the sweds, Russia has always been "the enemy", being a nemesis for hundreds of years. They even took half of swedens landmass in 1809 (Finland). Sweden has fought against most countries in Europe, but non have gained the status Russia has.
Even though Sweden and Finland has been separated for some time now, and finns been finns and all, the both countries has great relations and cooperate in many fields.
That's not half their landmass.
It's more like 40% of it.
Technically.
Oh yeah they took Finland 200 years ago so all Swedes are now highly motivated fighters just because of that. And have been for generations!
This is what they talk about around the dinner tables.
OMG! You're an IDIOT! You must be American!
Fuck "Lede FI"
Actually Denmark used to be the archenemy from 1521 to 1814. But since when Preussia attacked Denmark in 1848 we have been on their side.
@@johanfredriksson8412 As a "Skåning" the animosity with our alcoholic cousins on the other side of Öresund hasn´t diminished.
swede here, i'd also point out the fucking Danes, though these days the animosity is a bit less murderous and a bit more bitter brotherhood in the style of "it'd be better if i were an only kid, but i'll help you out if it comes to it. maybe."
As a Swede I can proudly say Russia would meet resistance not only from our armed forces, but also population, a lot of people here know how to aim and pull the trigger.
Glöm inte hur många som spelar call of duty dagarna i ända också😏😏😏
Hahaha bra sagt
Thats news to me. Has "plattan" ramped up its black market arms sales? Dont know if hells angels are reliable military force.
@@HeyAddieImTojo specielt när man moddat för ändlös respawn mode.
As both a Swede and a Finn, i feel very proud of my nationality now.
One important point: With Sweden and Finland in NATO - together with Norway (who has been a member since its foundation) - it will be MUCH easier to mobilize troops and equipment through the entire region.
I.e. in Norway - there are some areas where the country is so "skinny" and lightly populated that if you take out a single bridge - there is NO way to cross - other than going by sea.
You could cross easily by going into Sweden and back in again. But THAT is illegal.
Unless they are in NATO....
Same with fighter planes patrolling that must avoid crossing into Swedish and Finish airspace (a lot of intercepts of Russian craft by Norwegian F-16 and F-35). That will be so much easier and effective with both of them in NATO.
more importantly, those three countries can now create a joint, layered air defense that would provide airspace denial comparable to the most lethal anywhere in the world
@@justinbukoski1 Combined with Patriot systems on Gotland (among other positions) and the Baltic sea will de facto be controlled by NATO.
@@irispettson There are lots of Russian A2AD assets in Kaliningrad as well. At least now, NATO should be able to achieve parity in the Baltic Sea.
@@josephryan9230 Pity nobody took Kaliningrad when Russia tried to give it up after 1989.
This is the single best outcome of their addition; it brings a lot more viability to the defense of the region as a whole. There's long been talks of a "Nordic Defense Union", and to some degree that exists informally, but having this within the formal command structure that NATO provides just makes it a lot more solid.
I'm Swedish and in the military. We look at Finland as our brothers and sisters
And why is that? You slaved your brothers and sisters for hundreds of years. The f outta here.
Now your in NATO so you are now American brothers and sisters and your protected by the sickest military ever
Why cant every country join NATO?
Then we're all good :)
@@scorch4299 agreed
1 thing that i would politely like to correct is that, even though Finns are conscript soldiers we have a huge motivation to defend our country and the conscription feels just like any other duty you have to do in life. Plus our conscripts are actually well trained, "well" as in whats best possible in 1 year.
I suspect there is a huge difference in the motivation of a defensive conscript compared with an invading conscript....Russian
Norway: 52 /f-35
Denmark: 27 /f-35
Finland: 62 /f-35
Sweden: 162+ /gripen E/C/D
Nordics have over 300 first class fighters to put against Putin's obsolete Air Force.
Back in the day Sweden had almost 1000 planes, which were some of the most highly technological fighters of its time. The cold war Arsenal of Sweden was insane...
Vi kan säkert också damma av några J29 Tunnan från olika muséer om det krisar xD
@@1985Viggen HAHAHA
Yes It will be good that when Sweden and Finland has join the NATO ; Grippen has to also been nice to find be in Finlands field , my friend..
I think you got it right - Finland and Sweden were looking for the right situation and opportunity to apply for NATO membership and Russia obliged
They were already de facto in Nato without any nukes pointed at them. Now they will be wiped
For sure, it’s why they frequently polled their citizens on whether or not they wanted to join. You don’t do that if you have no interest
@@im9550 Most Swedes I talk to do not want to join. They did not hold a referendum on this, and I suspect if they did the population would be against joining NATO. Do not believe polls that come out of Scandinavia, they are very good at making you say what you are allowed to say here, if that makes sense.
@@NorwegianNationalist1 yeah I'm certain the Swestapo would find them and throw them into Surströmming filled vats if they ever found someone.. answering a poll in a way they don't like
@@NorwegianNationalist1 Swede here, personally, I don't "want" to join but I am in support of joining the alliance. The primary argument against I've personally seen is basically we'd be entering in an alliance with Turkey and may be forced to send Swedish soldiers to defend a country whose list of human rights abuses rivals that of Russia.
As for safety and cost, there simply is no better guarantee of safety than NATO not to mention the vast amounts of money that still has to be spent to be secure without NATO.
Though, it's plain to see, Russia has chosen to display unspeakable brutality and unleashed unimaginable destruction on one of their culturally closest neighbors. Countless lives and countless billions, possibly trillions, in damages would've been saved had Ukraine been a NATO member.
British civilian here - I would be proud and honoured to have these two strong cultures as allies. It's been a while since I was proud of something my government has done, but the mutual defence pact the UK signed with both Finland and Sweden to cover the period between their application and their accession is absolutely fantastic.
Also, the egg came first.
You can be proud of your government's head, Queen Elizabeth. She is wonderful!
@@salsanchez2114 i hope thats a joke lol
As i am (FIN) very thankfull For UK support!!!
@@detdvr4498 and thanks to their war exhaustion, they could not afford colonialism later
Finland and Sweden both have been allied with the UK since 2012 in the form of the Joint Expeditionary Force or JEF for short. Other JEF member countries are Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Norway.
Hi! I'd like to say that todays conscripts are trained much better and have better moral than couple of years ago. I served recently and my platoon was highly motivated and trained with excelent staff
Finnish conscripts are not really poorly motivated, yes, the service itself can sometimes be a pain, but great portion is both highly motivated and highly trained. The difference with russian conscripts is that finnish are not abused and actually receive training. We know our terrain and we have few tricks up our sleeve that are rarely taken into account in these reviews.
Finns are proud of their first independence and are eager to fund new generation of veterans. However we will have putinlike comanders who will get crushed under tanks as leadershipskills are thad oldfashioned.
Finn living in Australia here, 🇫🇮
All my family is in finland.
Finns would fight just as hard for Finland if not more than the Ukrainians have been for Ukraine.
No question of bravery
Being from Sweden myself, I highly respect the Finnish people and their fighting spirit - it even has a name "Sisu". Its close to the American saying of bootstrap theory but jacked up to 11. What they did in 1918 and the second WW was pretty amazing and purely down to that fighting spirit - no weapons, no ammo, just knifes and morale in some cases (and freezing weather). If you think Ukrainians are showing strength of spirit (Slava Ukraina!) the Finns would basically say "hold my Olut" (beer) and proceed to march straight to Moscow.
I get what you are saying but… they would never go anywhere, because they are a defending force and its the defending that is great. Finland has a great defendable infrastructure. Thats their strength, not invasions.
Im swedish to!
Sounds more like "Americans of Finnish Descent" than actual "Finns, in Finland" imo.🤨
what did they do in 1918???
@@coolMan921 civil war between reds (pro-russian) and whites (pro-finn). Whites won and 20 years later they fought side by side against russia
I'm gonna say it, Finland has one of the best Artillerys in Europe (Although we might not have enough Artillery pieces, we have accurate firing)
This really undermines how efficient and good Finnish Artillery power is. Sure Finland doesn't have to most modern Artillery, but I bet it can beat many modern systems just by proper training. Artillery power shouldn't be undermined.
As a Finn, I just have to point out some misinformation and fearmongering in this video:
Finnish conscripts are extremely motivated (prior to the Russian assault of Ukraine, we were the top in Europe with 74% of the population willing to defend their country with weapons in an event of an attack, Ukraine being the second at 64%) - after the Russian invasion our numbers are at 88% - no one knows the Ukrainian one (while probably close to 100%), but I guess everyone agrees that they are doing pretty damn good job there...)
I'd say that we probably also are in top 2 globally in terms of how well our conscripts are trained (Israel being the other top 2 country). To back this up, in the joint exercise Cold Response 2022 in Norway, a defensive force consisting solely of Finnish conscripts successfully defended against an amphibious attack by US Marine Corps, who are pretty good even by "professional soldiers" standard.
Also we don't have "ski infantry". Skiing is just another a skill that every single infantryman of our conscripts, reserve has. Skiing is part of our elementary school curriculum FFS!. So in a sense, you are correct, we have ski infantry, but we call it just infantry.
Our artillery does have precision-guided munitions and "soviet era" is extremely misleading - I don't think we field *any* soviet artillery equipment. We have M270 MLRS, K9 Thunders and even without taking the heavy and light mortars into account our artillery is on par in regard of things-to-fire-projectiles-at-russkies with Germany, Italy and Spain combined.
Lastly, I think that video of "moving nuclear missiles to Finnish border" is a) debunked and b) totally ridiculous as a concept, they are _intercontinental ballistic missiles_ and there is absolutely zero need to "move" them in order to strike anywhere. It would be just a retargeting issue.
I genuinely don't understand the whole "moving nuclear missiles" scares now, it just makes Russia and the people who clutch their pearls about it look like clowns. Russia could hit Finland from Uelen if they really wanted to. And then be nuked into oblivion for it.
Yeah, everybody thinks they'll defend their country 'till you get Helsinki bombed inside out within a few months.
And the fact that we have more soldiers than he says, our reserves are actively trained after all in war we could probably have army of 500k if needed
@@Saluuz But trained and experienced are two different things. Everyone thinks they're a badass until the shells start falling. The vast majority of conscripts will instantly rout the second the shit hits the fan. I'm talking all countries here. It happened all the time in Vietnam, when the bullets start flying people forget all their training and discipline and run. And as soon as there's a breakdown in communication people rout so fast they can't recover, this was demonstrated well in Ukraine, several Ukraine strongholds fell within days not months like predicted due to soldiers pulling back the second they don't have any orders.
@@Saluuz He hears the word "reserves" and think it means the same as in the military he's most used to. I'm sure if he knew how differently Scandinavian reserve troops are trained he'd have included them in that figure.
You are very critical and wrong about Finland's military capabilities.
-Finland's conscrips are better trained and motivated than most. We fight to defend our home, not for a college degree. Finland's willingness to defend their country is at 74% of the population, which is the highest in Europe and far higher than in the USA
-We are pioneers in artillery. In WW2, we stopped a Russian force of 100 000 men in their grouping stage, by sheer artillery power. 1000 heavy artillery pieces and 100 MLR systems.
-We are trained to fight a superior enemy, which means we won't abandon our post when the shelling starts.
Lastly about our doctrine. A quote from George S. Patton summarizes it perfectly: “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his”
Agreed, people who have to fight for their countries very existence need no other motivation, the Finns and swedes would certainly bolster natos strength. Even if china and Russia would fight together, which isn't very likely, it would improve our situation greatly
You might be pioneers in artillery but the US had led the world in that regard for nearly a century. That said, I have an immense respect for the Finnish military and all they were able to do against the Soviets in their conflicts
A funny sidenote. As you said, conscripts are not there for college education - on the other hand, the wartime force is full of people With education, intellectuals, foremen, electricians, mechanics, ambulance personel etc.. that's quite an asset. :)
What amazed me, is the fact, that actually all the finnish bridges have the holes in the construction to easily insert explosives and destroy these bridges with relatively small amounts of explosives. They seem to learn the historical lesson well...
Isn’t that the standard everywhere?
@@potatofuryy For sure not in Ukraine and I am from CZ and also do not think anything like this is done with bridges here...
one thing about the artellery, if you would count finlands mortars alone it would be around 1500, the artellery force is about 1200 with selfpropelled vehicles and mlrs systems and regular artellery forces
As a person who lives in Pietari (St. Petersburg) and has been a frequent guest in Suomi in better times and who also studied Finnish history and language in the university (yeah, in 00s we were still supposed to be at least partners if not friends) I believe Finns to be quite stubborn, tough (as most Northern nations) and noble people who value their heritage, their national identity and their independence. Despite Russia having the upper hand in terms of numbers (troops, ground vehicles, aircraft), conquering every kilometer of Suomi would be a nightmare imo. And in any case I hope it would never come to that.
To me “Finnish” was always a sign of quality, as we had a lot of their goods here or went for them to Suomi - Finnish dairy, Finnish cheese, Finnish cellphones and tyres, Finnish beer (Karhu I luv you), etc. Sad to see we ruined it all.
This Ukraine war is so fucked up and my country is so fucked up because of Putin.
Freedom to Ukraine!
I wish you well.
We didnt ruin it all, Putin and his minions ruined it. All the best 4 you my friend, from Finland.
Почему вы думаете что Россия будет покорять каждый метр? Вы не братский народ, мы с вами не братья как украинцы и белорусы это один с нами народ. С финнами мы не будем церемонится и жалеть их, просто ракетами разъебём там всё.
Yes Sweden is truly culturaly proud country
Free beer for you in Tallinn! Please continue this trend and after world turns normal
I don't think conscripts are necessarily low-skill, low-morale troops in general. I also don't think volunteers are necessarily much better. A US grunt who signs up for later free education may not have higher morale than a Finnish conscript. It all comes down to the individual level of motivation, which is pretty high in those nordic countries and generally everywhere where people feel their country is threatened. Israel also has a drafted army and would you say they are not motivated? Generalisations like that don't make sense. I also find that the Swiss army is pretty motivated, even though it's mostly conscripted. Conscription is only a problem when people don't trust their government, like in the former eastern block. Also, Saddam Hussein had little trust in his own troops, other than a few Republican Guard units and he had plenty of reason for that. But for solidly democratic countries like the Scandinavian ones, their motivation is pretty high.
Also, conscription ensures that in times of need, there is a vast pool of people who have at least some basic military background. They will need refreshers, but they have experience.
the distinction rly doesn't mean much at all.
Isn't that evident since Ukrainian conscripts are successful and motivated despite initially analysts saying they would be over runned in a week by Russia. Finland successfully held off the Soviets in 1939 with conscripted soldiers and volunteers from other nations. Unfortunately they fought alone and were eventually defeated. Don't think that would happen again being part of NATO.
Finland is also a highly educated county. Conscipts have education in engineering, healthcare and so on that is valuable
The USA is a Country sliding out of Existence. If it weren't for the Corrupt Elites raping that place and enjoying it at the same time it would Burn.
Conscripts in a ‘free’ country I think are much better than give credit for. They are by no means professional soldiers but good basic platform to build on. They are treated well and not looked down on as in the past. Autocratic countries another story. Treated poorly not trained since seen just as cannon fodder and abused in other ways not imaginable!
When Sweden and Finland was considering joining NATO, I remember seeing a summary of what each of them are bringing to the table, and if I remember correctly, the Finland's artillery was insane. Now back then at least me, a layman in these matters, was thinking of artillery like an upgraded design cannon of the 1600s ;) The recent Ukraine's advance shed some light on the power of modern artillery, and I was hoping to hear more, so that's how I ended up here hope I find what I am looking for ;)
Please keep it up. I love your stuff.
I wouldn't say that Finnish conscripts are "poorly trained" or have bad morale. The training might be short (especially for enlisted) but it's usually of very high quality. The bad morale is, as mentioned, just a tradition of complaining. Pretty much everyone has a grandfather or great grandfather who served in a war so people are motivated. Also, the civilian society is still on a high level of preparedness with rules on protective bomb shelters in apartment buildings and so on.
Finland uses 120mm mortars, not 102mm. The light infantry also uses 81mm mortars.
Both Finland and Sweden are pretty much already integrated in NATO structure. Just read up on excercises like Viking 22. Let me know if you want to connect you to someone who has knowledge about both Swedish and Finnish military.
He stated it in one comment that it was hard to find the correct info but I would say "then it is as it should be". We don't want the Russians to know the true numbers and better to keep em guessing.
“Bad morale” is really only seen in small bits of the conscript training period, and very minor. It’s based solely on ‘having’ to be in the army, when 19yo’s would rather be pursuing their passions in the civil world. However the training is to a level that this morale is by no means a factor effecting the level of expertise taught and tends to go no further than that desire to be home (obviously with the outlier of one or two conscripts who just dont want to be there at all). Finnish culture and attitude means most of the conscripts will feel like this at the start of service but quickly adopt the mindset of “it is what it is, imma do my best now and take it as it comes and then I’ll be back home at the end of the year”. Don’t get this confused, which I think he did in the video, with War-time morale. We must remember Finlands deep history with Russia. Finland is a ruthless force to be reckoned with, military is a strong backbone of Finnish culture and by no means would every conscript be un-motivated if Russia were to invade. A very similar story to Ukraine, I feel if Russia were to take to Finlands borders, most Finns would defend their beloved nation to the grave and never let it fall into the hands of the Bear again or anything remotely similar, like what happened in the cold war.
Irish Infantryman here, served with the Swedes in Liberia and the Finns in the Lebanon. They don't pull their punches. A fine addition to NATO. I wish I could say the same about us. Glory to Ukraine.
you believe ireland should join nato?
You guys gave us Kevin Owens so you can't be but so bad.
We'll trade Germany for Ireland, Turkey for Finland, and Hungary for Sweden. Make it happen please.
If the current Irish army can fight anything like the Irish soldiers at Jadotville, they'd be a more than welcome addition
@@AbuHajarAlBugatti what are you on about mate
Swedish guy here, yes our standing army is very small in manpower, but like with the finnish army we do have conscription and can accellerate traning if tensions rise.
Another thing, we also have the Homeguard of about 25000 people, mainly tasked with protecting the vital infrastructure in their backyard spread all over the country.
Its a far cry from the "invasion defence" of the cold war, but we are fokusing were we feel would have the best effect.
8:50 sitting my time in the military (year 2021, 11 months) we trained to be proficient with iron sights, not optics. However, leaders also got some training with the night vision
Finland has pretty much won every combat maneuver simulation ever thrown at them. They really know how to use their terrain to their advantages. Seeing the performance of the Russian Troops in Ukraine, I would say Finland on the defensive would have no problem holding them back.
Finnish volunteers who werent to fight in Ukraine (not many of them but something like 15) said that after what they have seen in Ukraine, they have no doubts that Russians would get slaughtered if they ever tried to invade Finland. The main thing Russia is able to use to their advantage right now is their massive artillery and mortar forces but in everything else they are lacking.
Finland would absolutely crush the Russians today.
Finland has also endured in every actual combat ever thrown at them. Sweden has been around longer but has still won the vast majority of their wars (They did loose significant territory to imperial Russia).
Whats wrong with Russian perforance in Ukraine? Considering Ukraine outnumbers Russia in manpower 3:1 and Russia still pushing them back, its impressive.
@@Balnazzardi you are just a lier
Correction: Finns and Israelis are exception of conscript system: their conscripts are some of the best and their overall force is just as effective as any professional army.
Including Sweden 👍🏻
Thanks for posting this. Pretty interesting, for being a Finn. There were some issues but the main one was the war time size of the Finnish army. It was a bit off mark... not even close to be honest. Practically the size would be close to one million soldiers in arms plus the ladies, which have a history of taking care of numerous of duties during the WWII. The artillery bit was way off the mark, too. Finland has the biggest numbers in Europe, and not just numbers. The systems are perhaps the most advanced in the world. That's why there usually are twenty or so military experts watching in Lapland, when we are shooting. We actually never reveal the real numbers of tubes and tanks and so fort, so it's not your fault. You mentioned couple hundred of tanks while the real number could be higher, by tenfold - you never know. But we don't really mind. The motivation of conscripts was perhaps the most off mark comment in your piece. My son just went into the army and he was lightened up, as they all are. It is still over 80% who are supporting the army and are willing to defend their country. That is a real high number, if you think about it. The rest 20% will handle itself, in case some one attacks - in a day. Passive-aggressive folks, as you see. Interesting stuff, though. Keep up, dude.
Good channel..I may just subscribe. One thing: insert a little more history. Keep it up! Oh, hell... I subbed!
Finland also has the most extensive bunker system in the World. They could shelter their entire civilian population, it's been Government policy for decades and it's part of their building codes.
That makes a big difference when your country is invaded, the civilian population is able to hold out and it leaves the military to focus on attacking.
And Sweden also has a lot of underground facilities, with airbases inside mountains, and every highway a runway.
Both countries are _'hardened'_ and they've planned for the logistics of a long war in their territory (the Saab Gripen is a logistics masterpiece, the opposite of a hangar Queen).
That has to be considered a Force multiplier.
in your dreams buddy.
Actually I think the swiss take the bunker title
@@swissmilitischristilxxii3691 hello ivan
sounds like Switzerland
@@swissmilitischristilxxii3691 I lived in a small town in Finland and even there my apartment building AND the place where I worked had bomb shelters, and not just some tiny sardine boxes but proper living spaces. The saunas are built usually under the apartment building so there is proper place to wash etc.
Finland's entire military is built around a highly mobile and spread out infantry that's motivated to fight. It would be an economically impossible for Russia to fight them for an extended period of time in a ground invasion. If Ukraine has proved such a headache for Russia so far with some juice from the West, Finland would be a nightmare
Winter War 2, Electric Boogaloo
Yeah, I'd like to see Russia try, just for lolz.
@@CharChar2121 Knowing Putin, they will.
@@CharChar2121 try *again lmao
And the ghost of a certain sniper.
Military time is actually 6-12months in Finland. Depends on your weaponry etc.
The rapid admission of Sweden and Finland to NATO was possible because both countries and their armies were already prepared in advance to meet the conditions for accession. They also have experience in cooperating with NATO armies. Compared to, say, Macedonia.
I remember when I grew up in the 70's and 80's that there were instructions and rules for guerrilla warfare in the Swedish telephone directories. And I think we do not have to worry about the Finnish morale if we look back historically.😁
That's the problem though. The moral of any western nation should be 0 as pretty much nothing could be worse than this slow and humiliating suicide of our nations under this international regime of multinational finance and their slow murder of our peoples by spiritual degradation and forced multiculturalism. Yet they can easily motivate the dumb masses to fight since they control information and thus the narrative through their complete control over traditional media and social media, all they need to do is create an enemy in the minds of the people.
The true enemy is within the gates, not outside them. But the odds of the common man understanding this is basically nil. That is unless there is such a bad situation that it forces the common man to actually engage himself politically and pierce the vail of lies that is put in front of his eyes. This only really happens under Weimar conditions. We already have the immorality and decay, now we just need the economic collapse and rampant lawlessness to force the masses to wake up. That's the only way is can see us getting out of this hell.
Not at ALL 😂 Russia should know!!
I CANNOT imagine what would happen today. I have a lot of respect to Finland. Fierce af. Wish my wallet would allow me to visit. One day 😄
You dont have to worry about it today either.
Sweden has not been neutral since the end of WW2. We have been alliance independent since a secret agreement was reached with the United States in the late 1950s to the early 1960s. The United States would provide military assistance if the Russians, then the Soviet Union, attacked if we shut down our nuclear weapons program. Which we then "officially" did. Sweden had the capacity to become the world's 4th largest nuclear weapon country, if the facts are now correct. So the Russians should be happy that we are no longer neutral, because then we would probably have officially or secretly had the Bomb. But we should not paint satan on the wall before he shows up. can recommend watching "the swedish bomb" on YT.
Finland is the "prepper" nation of Europe. Russia now gets bogged down a few km from their own borders on flat farm-land in Ukraine... I think Finland is a no-go as target.
As a Norwegian, the only downside to having Sweden and Finland being part of NATO was that it was a nice get-a-way place should shit hit the fan.
On the other hand, seeing Russian actual combat performance I don't really feel a need to worry about such a scenario.
The thing about Finland is that there's one, rather short, direct path to St. Petersburg. Russia has to account for that now in any contingency. Even now, if they even just shift assets up toward that border, those are assets that cannot be employed against Ukrainians. That alone is likely more effect than any actual conflict as there's almost certainly not going to be a direct NATO-Russian engagement.
@@cjohnson3836 Estonia is not much further away and they are already in nato.
@@cjohnson3836 Russians keep saying the way Nato attacks is through ukraine fields, because they are so easy to drive across, as Russia has themselves demonstrated, getting 150km in and getting stuck.
@@tm5123 [Russians keep saying the way Nato attacks] Well, Russians can keep saying whatever idiocy they want. NATO doesn't "attack" period. Its not an offensive organization.
Exactly, as long as Finland and Sweden have a good supply of tractors to use as combat vehicles there is no need to worry
At 3:45 the actual military manpower of Finland is 900 000. It dhould be understood that in WW2 Finland at its peak had 500 000 soldiers at arms in the front. At that time the population of Finland was under 4 million and as the independent country was young, only the younger generations had received military training in the young Finnish army. So today, we figure 280 000 would be enough, but if needed, 900 000 would defend the border.
Just started my military service in finland 2/22 Upinniemi. I love it.
I never knew I wanted a break down of Finland's defense spending. Thank you for doing that
It’s actually fascinating to look into these European spending documents and equipment lists . It’s mostly old soviet vehicles and weapons
@@Taskandpurpose makes me wonder how much they could give to Ukraine, and how much could be backfilled by the USA
The real question is, is Nazi RuSSia ready for Finland and Sweden? lol
@@Taskandpurpose The F-35 is a good fit for Finland's terrain if its the B or C variant.
@Tord Pettersson Yeah but we still have more reserves and artillery
When it comes to artillary, it also consists several domestically produced cannons and gun howitzers and many Russian ones are modernized. Finland also uses smart ammo. Also, Finnish artillary is specifically known for its extreme accuracy and effectiveness with long history behind (Check out general Vilho Petter Nenonen, the trajectory calculation formulas he developed are still in use today by all modern artillery) There are also K9-Thunder howitzers (there should be at least 98 pieces when the deal is complete), M270 MLRS multiple rocket launcher (some 41), RM-70 multiple rocket launcher (some 72) and all kinds of other stuff...
I wouldnt be surprised if we had old BM-21's still in storage as well.
Yeah, this guy is really underestimating Finland’s military capabilities...
Finland has also produced a lot of state of the art equipment, like Patria AMV/AMOS/NEMO, Hamina-class FAC, Jurmo/Jehu-class landing crafts, Tampella mortars, Sako rifles, Lapua ammunition etc.
@@KoteDarasuum very likely
@@vasara2385 More so called experts try to contemplate Finland´s true numbers and give some numbers that are completely different, better for us as it gives so much unreliable information to hostile nations. I love this as it makes harder and harder intelligence verify numbers. We have seen Russian Inttelligence has done some major miscaluclations. So videos of these will help immensely in defense.
Yes. I was in artillely. Vilho Pesonen is an famous one , With orhers.
Nenonen I mean,,,
The dude at 4:03 was in my squad when I served as squad leader in combat camera.
Came across your channel and I am addicted. Love the fact that Finland and Sweeden joined Nato. I am old school having been in both the Navy and the Army, this channel gets me even though I prefer double action side arms.
I think you have couple of mistakes in your analysis. Finnish conscripts are extremely motivated and eventhough some of the artilleryis 120mm mortars, finland is still quite an artillery superpower due to the training and accuracy.
Not really though atleast not in my recruitment period, most of dudes I was with were not motivated at all they were there just because law says that you are by gender obligated to choose either Civil Service or Military. Only the women I saw were more ''motivated'' because for them they are not legally obligated to choose one or other.
Sure maybe there has been a somesort of shift towards motivation because Russia's action.
@@normaaliihminen722 ok sry to hear bro, i had good group tho.. :) and mortars are super necessary for trenches, holes and ditches where they think they're safe muahaha
@@normaaliihminen722 when i was in army ew years back around 80% of the people were willing to defend Finland in case of invasion. Those "finns" that dont care for their own land should leave here in 1st place.
There is also big difference between motivation in the peace time service and motivation in case of war.
you need the bonus shell thou
With Russia's current performance in its war with Ukraine, it is also pertinent to ask "Is Russia ready for war with Finland and Sweden?"
True haha and I think the answer is definitely not
Yup. That is what my question was as well.
Something tells me Russia is baiting NATO.
easy talking - not even america started a war like russia now. they bombed some afghans in flip flops. believe me, if russia invades finnland, they will win. no matte what. when 140000 russians can take 25 percent of ukraine, finnland will fall ...
RUAF would be grounded or destroyed, their artillery shot to pieces by smart ammo, and their troops ambushed. St. Petersburg would better start learning Finnish.
You should ask a finnish reservist if they are motivated. Most reservists have their own guns, own M05 gear and practice monthly. If thats not motivation i dont know what is.
3:17 The 280,000 wartime troops and they stay in somewhat good shape.
Then theres the 900,000 reservists which is a whole different story.
The 280,000 isn't misleading in the slightest, they can all be mobilized under 24 hours.
During WW2 Finland mobilized 530,000 troops with a population just under 4,000,000.
Glad to see our fellow nordic countries join NATO! Greetings from Norway 🇳🇴 😀
This is a game changer for us who live in the nordic even tho we have all ready have a good relationship both country and military wise
Nordic Warriors 🇧🇻🇸🇪🇫🇮
...Metal Warriors! ;) I think we 5 will be able to act as a powerful bloc inside Nato, making it all the better.
The ultimate equalizer will always be Russian nukes. So what's new?
Have high hopes for that Meomarte:) Yeah indeed
Just as we are speaking Russian missles are pointed at all the great cities of the West, including the US. Nothing else means much.
@@IK-so2bm Nuclear Missiles are not useful. They only bring mutual destruction. Nothing else about them means much.
About the ski thing: it’s not just certain battalions, but rather the entire army that skis. It’s standard training to ski, so every single Finnish soldier is trained (to an extent) with skiing
I was not
@@icyberg4152 are you a finnish soldier?
Not necessarily standard training. We didn't have to ski even once as part of training. We just did it on fridays because we had nothing else to do.
That is true. I was a middle of nowhere in Lapland and a man from Devil defences (a priest) ski our camp and came to talk with us...
We ski.. even when there wasn't enough snow. If the program stated that it is time to ski, then that we did
Worked with some Fins on two jobs.
Smart, disciplined, better english than mine.
The USSR got a very bloody nose trying to invade Finland. On paper, the Russians should have rolled over them. Nope.
Terrain. Weather. Altitude. Poor road access.
Unless threatened to yield or be nuked (cant see that happening thanks to MAD), I'd be betting on Russia getting its arse kicked out of Finland after an initial appearance of victory as the Fins defend survivavility and mobility over territory.
I think the Fins doctrine of picking fights on their terms (they choose terrain, when, how, probably rear elements vs main fighting force) then simply disappear to regroup and hit them again somewhere else.
Bit like the origins of the SAS in WW2 although not the desert.
I for one am so glad that the rest of the nordic countries have joined us they are great at what they each bring to a military alliance
Here in Poland we are really happy to see Finland and Sweden in NATO.
🙂🙂🙂
Bonjour amigo que pasa
The Finns will probably bring Simo Hayha out of cryostasis in a miltary emergency :p
kyllä
Great vid! You mentioned that Estonia was attacked by Russia using hybrid warfare (cyberattacks). This however is not a thing of the past and is going on currently. Russia is launching coordinated attacks on Estonia's infrastructure software (or however you call it), which have gotten more and more coordinated and thought trough to obviously get to some precise goal.
I like your sense of humour. Lost your backpay application lightning fast. hahaha.
The biggest issue for Sweden isn't the quality of the equipment, it's the limited quantity of everything. The initial orders are always reduced and the end result is a good technological product, but in limited quantities. Furthermore the spending on the military has been constantly reduced, especially in the last 30 years and for a while the focus wasn't on an invasion defense, but it rather had a focus on international missions.
Another thing that wasn't mentioned is the integration/adaption of NATO structures and organization, not to mention how Sweden (and Finland) has been "Partnership for Peace" member since 1994.
As for one of the claims in the video regarding "long range tactical missiles", Sweden does not operate any cruise missiles. JAS 39 Gripen is compatible with such cruise missiles, but Sweden doesn't operate/own any. Sweden does operate long range anti-ship missiles.
The number of soldiers is not entirely accurate either since it didn't include 20k soldiers in the homeguard (i.e. regularly trained soldiers that aren't reservists). Another factor is the large portion of anti-tank weapons among all the units and the historical idea and tactics of guerilla warfare in the countryside.
I also feel like not mentioning Leopard 2 (120) or CV90 (550) made it seem like Sweden has no armored vehicles or tanks.
Feels like Sweden was more of an afterthought in this video.
He even said in the Finnish part that he would talk more about the cv90 in the Swedish section lol.
@@northbreeze0111 I believe in quality vs quantity.
@@c0ya1 ok? Cv90 is for sure quality so don't know exactly what you mean.
@@c0ya1 He might just have meant that he was going to talk more about BAE Systems in the Swedish section. Still, it's weird to talk about how Finland has CV90's when Sweden has five times that amount. Not to mention that BAE Systems itself isn't even Swedish.
Sweden's contribution is mostly technology and the navy. The air force would be a compliment too. Sweden does not need a quantity of ground material and troops, that's where the Finns come in. What Sweden would provide on the ground side, would be technology, munitions, supplies, production capacity, medical and logistics. All of which would be crucial to the defense of Finland, which equates the defense of Sweden.
Poland swore to defend Sweden and Finland while they are still transitioning to join NATO
As a Polish citizen I can assure that Poland will help if NATO will use Article 5. For us NATO is to be or not to be.
And we are very thankful for that
The total number of Finnish reservists is 870.000. It sounds like they at first would mobilize 280.000 troops but could add considerably more reservists if needed.
Yep, the jist of it is that the higher ups send young men to a wood chipper and fill it up every time.
Great! You are so welcome!
Good video but you got one thing wrong. The Finnish reserve is 900000 alone so the estimate of 280000 wartime troops is pretty accurate.
There were _many_ things that were wrong.
Well, then again, what you can expect. It is probably not that easy to research these topics solely in English. Even if you used something like Wikipedia, but wanted to check the original sources for credibility, you would be greeted with Finnish language.
In Finland we have a saying that "Sweden will fight to the last Finnish."
yup! i agreed. Hakkapeliitta's anyone?
🤣🤣🤣🤣
With 100.000 Finns living in Sweden
if they come to sweden Denmark Will fight 🇩🇰this is our Neighbor we Will not allow Russia here and be forced to go to war
anttibra This is similar to an American saying about Europe's NATO members. "The Europeans are willing to fight the Russians, right down to the last American." Was used to call out Europeans for being so reliant on US military for defense and not spending enough for their defense. However, it is not used as much today because it seems that Mr. Putin has provided Europe with the proper motivation and more members are spending their fair share.(Especially Germany, seems Putin has awakened the sleeping Leopard.) I once read that US, UK, Poland, and Greece have always spent at least 2 percent of their gdp on defense, all of the others have been known to skimp on defense spending. If your expression holds true, then seems like we should expect Finland to be one of the nice defense contributors and Sweden to be one of the skimpers.
16:30 The Gotland Class sub actually did sink it... on more then one occasion..
welp i usually hear shooting and explosions going off in the distance (military training)
To be fair to our conscripts, they are pretty highly motivated, up to 80% supporting the defense Finland in case of an attack. And most importantly, when professional soldiers come here to train in arctic warfare, they train with our conscripts and every single time they are surprised that they were indeed conscripts and not professionals.
Also A finn will probably fight until his gun is dry, knife is dull and knuckles are broken before staying down, because that's the power of sisu.
I think the fact that there exists in the heart of every Finn an actual or potential fierce warrior is a factor often overlooked, which diminishes its significance in these discussions. When a quality such as this can be called upon from virtually every Finnish person without question, a potential invader is in for a very, very bad time.
@@wes11bravo a universal hate of russia is present here. I almost everyone i know would rather die than let russians come here.
This contempt for conscripts is ridiculous.
The major thing. We have teachers, engineers and so on in military reserve. Well educated people. How about in other countries
I would not want to fight them
Finland wasn't invaded by Russia in WW1, Finland was a part of the Russian empire in WW1. The 2 invasions you're referring to, the winter war and the continuation war, were both in WW2
It's not the only one 'inaccuracy' in this and other videos. Not sure if they're unintentional.
"Part of" as in under occupation by. As soon as they were too busy with the bolsheviks we declared independence and kicked the Russian troops out.
@@marcussoininen2084 That's a really ignorant oversimplification, to the point that it's basically untrue.
@@ivanbardov , goes for all the videos in this channel.
In the continuation war, Finland was on the invading side. Russia (or the USSR rather) was the invaded nation.
Furthermore, in 1918, shortly after Finnish independence from Russia, Sweden actually invaded the Finnish Åland Islands! This was during the Finnish Civil War.
5:10 no wonder ive been seeing so many jets flying.
Can you spot the Finnish sniper in this video? You’d better be quick because he definitely sees you😂
As a finn, studies made that Finland have high procent of their population whom wanted defend Finland: 74%. We have been called as European Vietnam, due we've an concept. We call it SISU. Even we're afraid, we dig deep and bring up the courage. Simo Häyhä unit of 31 men, defend against 4000 soviets troops.
When Finland was part of Russia, they liberate and end the seize in battle of Gorni Dubnjak, Bulgaria. 1000 rifle men won that over 70000 Turkish soldiers.
This is the soldiers anthem which they sing about that battle: czcams.com/video/1nehkhIOa-0/video.html
noni monni turpa kiinni
Soviets still won keep coping lmao
Every time I go to my shooting range or hunting I think of Simo Häyhä : G.O.A.T. He never used an optic.
He shot his favorite rifle; was patient to wait for the shot(s) he wanted; and he practiced, practiced and then practiced some more. Awesome infantryman!
@@AbuHajarAlBugatti out of pure slaughter of their own men and armor. The Soviet Union didn't gain anything and to this day realize how much of a mistake the Winter War was. A second Winter War with today's capabilities would decimate Russia without question. Keep lying to yourself
@@AbuHajarAlBugatti that isnt the point of what hes saying at all
I think there are some misconceptions about the FDF. Finnish conscripts and reservists are consistently performing as well as, or better than, foreign professional forces. Reservists are consistently called in for training to maintain skills, and/or learn new things.
I'd say that the FDF has the most powerful artillery force in europe, which is consistently lauded as extremely skilled and effective - Finland has a long, long artillery tradition. Some of the big guns are older and/or soviet made yes, however many have been modernized, and new systems (M270, K9) have been and are being acquired.
Ps. Did you just call the 102mm mortar small? I'd also say the comment about inaccurate artillery was quite ill-adviced.
Edit: I was told by my Finnish friends that the FDF mortars are 120mm & 81mm, not 102mm.
Yeah this guy is a joke. He's got no clue. Looks like almost everything he said about Finland is wrong.. I'm surprised he knows where it is
*V.P.Nenonen Has Entered The Chat*
@@jhtsurvival I don't think that's quite fair. Despite my criticism, I think he does a lot of good work, and even this video had some excellent material in it. This stuff is just fairly obscure - with all due respect, Finland and the FDF are rarely in the global consciousness. I personally had completely the wrong idea about the actual capabilities of the FDF until I got to see them up close, so I can't really harp on him too much. If nothing else, his video created quite a lot of discussion about the FDF, and many Finns have given us excellent insights into their capabilities. I think that's pretty valuable.
Correct but with Ukraine invasion, I think most countries understand they must increase their stock of modern ammo. Say for instance to get 8000 javelin like anti-tank rather than 3000, to say a number. No rush, russia is not going to attack nato but it would be clever to buy more ammo over the next 2 or three years.
Yep, Finnish artillery combined the best practices from German and Russian artillery tactics in the past and thus is really good at what it does. BTW not in accurate as the video says, our unit hit 50meter groups at 10km with a bit over 4 minute set up times using a soviet era 2S1 SPG from the seventies...
Finland military has a list of every truck, diesel van and pickup truck in case of war, so they can use them in the war efforts.
Last couple of decades we Finns have pondered about the motivation of conscripts. I'm willing to bet 2/2022 has answered all those questions for a long time. And I can tell you reserve courses are flying of the shelves like himars.
The actual reserves in total are 900k troops. 280 000 are what is considered the troops that are able to be deployed quickly. AKA not too old. I was in the military in 2016 and since then I've been called 4 times to a reservist field training exercise I'd say for conscripts we are HIGHLY motivated to defend our country and independence. And we are very well trained. No wonder our troops kick US Marine ass in every wargames they fight eachother🤷🏼♂️😂
Well, that training + motivation + it's f*-all cold during the War Games!
Ya cause it's just that wargames.. while we are killing the enemy in war, and no games when you really st war
@@JoseAvila-fy1qu His point was that Finnish conscripts are top quality, and comfortably beat US Marines in Northern European environment. So for Russians, invading Finland would be 5x more difficult than invading Ukraine.
@@JoseAvila-fy1qu I was stationed in Alaska. When the Marines came to play they always got a whoopin'. Sorry man, you will just die if you aren't acclimated. That includes real war. The Marines just could not move or function there. We ran circles around them. It's the hardest environment in the world to fight in and survive as well.
I remember one time when my Brigade captured a Marine Regiment. It was 40 below. We were in wool shirts. They were wearing everything they had been issued and could hardly move. I felt sorry for them. Just reality, man.
@@JoseAvila-fy1qu The US havent fought a real war since Vietnam. Use airpower to bomb third world countries is not a real war. What Ukraine is fighting is war. There is lots of stories from Ukraine of US volonteers who tells you that this war is noting like their tours in Iraq or Afghanistan
Excellent video so far, I had to pause to clarify on the time Finnish conscripts serve. The majority (your average infantryman, for example) only serve for 6 months. Medics, drivers, NCO's etc serve for 9 and 12 months, morale varies wildly. I never thought the day would come we'd go for the NATO card but I'm not complaining. t. 2/15 Niinisalo mortar taso-AU
The wolf is at the door my friend. Stay frosty.
Interesting that you say the morale varies, what do you mean by that? The ordinary troops complain a lot, or if Finland gets invaded they won't fight?
@@dougerrohmer More in the won't stop complaining sense. Mostly drivers in my experience. I do believe they would fight if war came.
@@mitamajr Yeah, that's common. The British Army has a tradition of whining so much that commanders worry when they stop complaining, because then it's serious.
Making your own country a target by joining a alliance of Warcriminals? "Not complaining bro" . found the braindead politically uneducated grunt
Chris, it would be great to see you deep dive into the Swedish military....
Your videos are the creme de la creme. Keep it up!
One thing Finland and Sweden have in common with NATO is they have worked with them and they have adopted, from what I have learned, their type of supply system. And one thing you forgot is the Archer 155 mm self-propelled howitzer which is a very nice weapons system.
That's also the reason why the get the fastpass.. they trained extensively with Nato and have Nato standards..
Sweden has sold it's CV 90 to NATO nations so they can fit in decently well..
I wass hoping someone would mentione the Archer. So awsome
The Swedish military is basically already part of nato, all of our equipment and training is nato compliant and most of our international training excercises and military deployments are done with nato countries. It should be a very easy transition
Another BAE/Bofors production :) - very effective against Russina Artillery as more accurate and outranging their pieces significantly
Do not underestimate the animosity Finland has for Russia, and spirit pit into actions. Both Sweden and Finland have "history" with Russia. Also, per Capita both these nations perform at the top in physical endurance/ training. Perhaps a bit complacent recently (Sweden), but times change.
Why do you want to antagonize russia? Do you really think your going to not go to war?
@@Castragroup how, by stating facts?...anyway, doesnt matter to Russia if one does or doesnt. But i was in a uniform for my country, and know that Russia is afraid of NATO more than anything. (and has nothing to match it. I predict that Putins days are numbered, and the next one behind the desk will beg for sanctions to be lifted.
@@Ironsatyr well yeah they are scarred of nato thats the point. nato is crazy. i will ask again. why do you want to antagonize russia and start shit?
@@Castragroup ah i see you took your comment down. You need to study up on the history, of NATO. for starters. The war is here, but you dont know how to see it. your life experiences are prob pretty limited, so dont waste anyones time
@@Ironsatyr no its right there. you need to study history. although your probably not smart enough to synthesize the data into a factual conclusion based on reality.
You should go to Finland. The soldiers are extreamly motivated and skilled.
The conscrips are doing repetiotion traning frequently.
They know the every day stone and tree in the area they are prepared to fight.