This is how Finland strengthens NATO

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Before Vladimir Putin (70) invaded Ukraine, less than a third of Finns wanted to join NATO. Now more than 70 percent are – and Finland has been an official NATO member since Tuesday after 80 years of neutrality.

Finland is officially welcomed to the alliance in the margins of a NATO summit. Finnish President Sauli Niinistö (74) signed the NATO law last week. The alliance gains a powerful 31st member. An overview of the most important core data of the Finnish army.

Finland’s membership extends the direct border between NATO and Russia by some 1,340 kilometres. Due to Finland’s geographical location, the Baltic NATO states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, for example, are much better defended against a Russian attack.

For Putin, this geographical rapprochement of NATO has only disadvantages: he has a much more powerful neighbor – the exact opposite of what he wanted, according to NATO boss Jens Stoltenberg (64).

At the same time, the alliance founded in 1949 will become bigger and more powerful with the accession of Finland. According to figures from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Finland is already among the countries that annually invest 2 percent of their gross domestic product in defense. This important NATO directive is currently not being met by Germany and a number of other alliance partners.

The size of the Finnish Defense Forces is given by the IISS as 24,000 men and women, plus about 238,000 reservists. To protect the land borders, Finland has, among other things, about 100 Leopard 2A6 main battle tanks and hundreds of artillery pieces. Looking at Russia, the linchpin of its military power is a large, well-trained reserve army. This is maintained by conscription, a system that has been abolished in most other European countries.

In total, Finland already has 166 aircraft, including 62 fighter jets, in its air fleet. Which at first seems small compared to NATO’s 20,633 planes and 3,398 fighter jets, but extends the western lead over Russia again. That can only be 773, according to Statista figures from 2022. How the war has changed these figures is still unclear.

Finland is currently investing in more than 60 state-of-the-art F-35 fighter jets. The US jets are already used by a large number of NATO countries. An integration of the Finnish Air Force into NATO would be much easier with the F-35. Moreover, due to its proximity to Russian airspace, part of which is already shared with NATO, Finland can conduct detailed air surveillance.

The Finnish Navy has three tasks related to the military defense of Finland: to monitor NATO’s territorial waters, to defend against territorial encroachments and attacks at sea, and to protect naval communications. It is likely that the country will also take on these tasks on the eastern border for NATO.

The only problem: Finland has no submarines. Here Russia is clearly superior to the Scandinavian country. However, according to Global Firepower, Finland is still among the top 50 naval states in the world.

Source: Blick