Finland will take part in a NATO Response Force (NRF) exercise in Poland next week. The Finnish troops will consist of some 80 to 90 national servicemen, reservists, and their instructors, plus three armoured personnel carriers and a dozen or so other vehicles.The so-called Noble Mariner exercise is one of three exceptionally large-scale military exercises taking place from 14 to 24 May 2007 in the Southern Baltic region, including adjacent Danish, Swedish, German and Polish territorial waters, airspace and land. Dozens of ships and airplanes, and thousands of personnel from 17 coastal NATO states including the United States will take part in the NRF drill. Finland and Sweden will train with them as “partners in peace”.
The role of the Finnish and Swedish units is to act as a training opponent to the NRF disembarkation troops. In other words, the Finns and the Swedes will “defend” Poland against the invasion force. “From the military strategy point of view this drill does not have much to offer to us. Instead, we will gain experience as to how such exercises are planned and implemented, and how the service, logistics, and paper-work are taken care of”, says the Finnish troop commander, Commodore Henrik Nysten.
Before embarking for Poland, Finland and Sweden will organise another exercise in Sweden, where a significantly larger number of Finnish personnel and more equipment were involved. “The Sweden-phase is much more important. We are able gain information on how a Finnish-Swedish landing force operates”, Nysten explains. NATO will carry out the evaluation.
In Poland, Finland and Sweden will not act as actual NRF members, but as a separate partners-in-peace unit. The Defence Command’s view is that Finland is not taking part in an NRF drill, as, so far, Finland is not looking to participate in any NRF operations. One high-ranking officer stated, however: “If one chooses to see this as only an NRF exercise, then, yes, we are taking part in it.”
Presumably the Defence Command’s caution arises from the fact that the NATO Response Force issue has been a political “hot potato” for a long time. The official policy is to emphasise commitment to the EU rapid deployment forces.