Multinational exercise gives opportunities to us all, says Chief of Operations of FDF
Defence Forces Chief of Operations, lieutenant general Eero Pyötsiä, inspected coastal troops in the Northern Coasts 18 exercise on Thursday, 01 November. During the course of the inspection he saw action of the German-Finnish harbor protection unit among others. Finnish led exercises are interesting for partner nations as the environment in Finland is quite different from that of Central Europe. Finnish Navy is an expert in the challenging, shallow waters archipelago.
- The inspection revealed that the German troops had an opportunity to maneuver among the dense islands. This is not possible along the German coast where the geography is different, mentions Pyötsiä.
Finnish Defence Forces have mastered the peculiarities of its domestic terrain - Navy the archipelago, Army the long distances and the unpopulated wilderness. November weather adds its own flavor to the exercise: while the weather on Thursday was sunny with just a slight breeze, the weather earlier during the week was much more challenging.
On the day of the inspection the troops in Hanko were training harbor protection. Besides navigation on the Finnish shores, operations in low and no light conditions were set as training objectives for the German troops. Additional topics of interest were the Finnish boats. The task group staff is formed jointly between German and Finnish forces.
Swedish - Finnish bilateral defence cooperation is another area of development under the course of the exercise.
- This exercise in another milestone in the chain of the development of the bilateral defence cooperation and it is utilized to maximum effect. Cooperation with Sweden is under constant development, describes general Pyötsiä.
According to Pyötsiä, a multinational exercise offers learning opportunities in leadership and cooperation. The management of systems and people gets more complicated with the increase of participating nations.
- In a successful multinational exercise we observe how the other nations are doing things. Using a critical eye one can learn and find well-grounded reasons to modify one’s own TTPs (Tactics, Techniques and Procedures). If we don’t exercise together we can’t act together, concludes Pyötsiä.
