No plans for a Nato battle group in Finland
With Finland officially in the alliance, Nato’s top commander can now work the country into its military plans, which sketch out how to defend the bloc’s members against an attack.
But given Finland’s extensive capabilities and practice defending its own territory, it is unlikely at least for now that Nato will replicate defence structures on the rest of the eastern flank by stationing allied battle groups in the country, according to officials familiar with the issue.
Nato has already created eight multinational battle groups in Poland and the Baltic nations — and more recently in Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania — to serve as a “tripwire” in the case of a Russian attack. Those battle groups will also be able to scale up to brigade size, where and when required.
There were no plans to deploy a Nato battle group to Finland, a Nato official said, adding that Nato’s supreme allied commander constantly assesses threats and could make that recommendation if deemed necessary. A senior US official also said Americans did not expect to see a battle group in Finland and that the country had not made such a request.
“For years, we have developed our Nato compatibility. There is still considerable work ahead to integrate Finland’s defence as part of Nato’s common defence,” President Sauli Niinisto said at Tuesday’s accession ceremony. “The Finnish defence forces are facing new demands and challenges to which we must respond.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said earlier that Russia viewed Nato expansion as an encroachment on its security and that it would take countermeasures, according to the state news service Tass.
ALLOCATING FORCES
Gen Chris Cavoli, Nato’s supreme allied commander for Europe, is drafting the alliance’s regional plans, which are due to be sent to allies later in April and which will spell out where countries will need to allocate forces to defend the alliance.
Finland’s military, which can deploy 280,000 troops in wartime thanks to conscription, has long trained in defending its territory and already had its own combat-ready battle groups in place, the Nato official said. What was more likely was Finland would contribute troops to the other existing battle groups, the official said. The professional force is relatively slim.
Finland is bringing a slew of assets to the alliance. In addition to a long tradition of military intelligence with a strong understanding of Russia, the Nordic country had also invested in areas where the alliance needed to step up, including artillery and munitions, the Nato official said.
Still, Finland would need to invest to get its army and air force in shape to deploy abroad across the alliance, which would require logistics and sustainment forces along with training, the official added.