Live-Fire Exercise Improves Artillery Integration and Readiness

The live-fire phase of the exercise Dynamic Front 25 / Lightning Strike 24 started today. The main event of the international artillery exercise gives the Army a chance to showcase its’ strong capability in sharing situational awareness and conducting joint fires with Allied forces.

The Finnish Army has systematically been developing its ability to conduct joint fires with the other artillery forces in the Alliance. Finland’s commitment to enhancing interoperability with NATO and other partners has been demonstrated through exercises which involve real-world scenarios requiring seamless integration between the artillery troops of different national forces. The biggest test to its capabilities is taking place at Europe’s largest training area, Rovajärvi.

The focus on artillery live fire will serve as an important test of how the multinational forces can work together sharing data and synchronizing fire-missions through the Artillery Systems Cooperation Activities (ASCA) network in order to execute successful joint artillery operations.

Over the past week, Colonel Janne Mäkitalo, the exercise director of the Lightning Strike 24, has inspected the training units all around the Rovajärvi training area:

– The performance of both domestic and foreign units has been highly professional and skillful during the preparation phase of the exercise. However, the upcoming artillery live-fires will provide a clearer picture of the units' true capability to operate together. I am eager to see the result of all the hard work the troops in the exercise have put in, says Colonel Mäkitalo.

The multinational artillery exercise enhances the readiness of the Finnish Army’s artillery troops and develops the Alliance’s readiness to enhance security in the Nordic region. The results of the live fire phase will provide valuable insights into how multinational forces can further refine their joint capabilities of the multinational artillery troops in the future.