The roar of the combat engines replaces for a few days the usual silence in the Finland forests. On a highway closed to land traffic, F/A-18 HORNET aircraft, F-35 Lightning II y Hawk training aircraft They star Unusual maneuvers: Removal and landings under conditions that simulate a real armed conflict. It’s about exercise ‘Children’a Annual Practice of the Finnish Air Forcethat This year for the first time is done in cooperation with NATO forces.
The exercises, which will end this Friday, are looking for Prepare pilots to operate in adverse conditions. In case of a conflict with Russialas Large air bases They would be priority objectives of attacks with precision missiles. Therefore, NATO is committed to a new military doctrine known as “Distributed deployment” or Agile Fuat Employmentwhich consists of disperse the forces in smaller and mobile locations, such as roads or temporary tracks.
One of the protagonists of the exercise was the modern F-35 Lightning IIpiloted by the Royal Air Force of the Netherlands. From the Pirkkala base, this fifth generation plane made a maneuver that simulates the landing at 300 km/h on a highway Before retaking the flight immediately. Next, the cazas F/A-18 Hornet Finnish They took overalso demonstrating its ability to operate in this demanding environment.
“These exercises are the Practical application of the distributed deployment concept. In the Netherlands we had not done something like that for 41 years“Brigade General explains Marcel van Egmondof the Dutch Air Force ,. The goal, he says, is Increase the possibilities of survival and efficacy of the Air Force in case of attack.
“Our goal is not only to survive, but fight”add the Lieutenant Colonel We TodayDirector of the Exercise and Deputy Commander of the Finnish Air Force Academy. And is that war in Ukraine has shown that Mobility and flexibility can make a differenceeven in front of a military power like Russia.
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