The 280,000 are wartime troops (the youngest trained in the previous 10 years). In addition to that, there is a reserve of 620,000 - older age groups upwards of about 30 years old ->
Thing not mentioned here is the Finnish artillery. Which is probably the crown jewel of FDF. Finnish Defense Forces have over 1500 artillery pieces. That's more than germany or france. Might be more than those two combined. Finnish artillery men historically are responsible for even innovative direction of fire, as during WW2 they developed a modern way of ballistic calculation and direction of fire, which had...... Spectacular effects during the winter war. Modern days. We still have over 1500 artillery pieces if count our howitzers, rocket artillery and etc. together. After that we have to take in account the geography. Finland and Russia share only a few roads. The border area is heavily forested. When I say heavily, I mean heavily. Most of Europe absolutely doesn't have this kind of forest anymore. Not fore 100's of years now. This is, an actual, nature molded forest. A wild land where survival of the fittest is very much the key. These few roads dividing the frontier.... You betcha those 1500 artillery pieces are zeroed on these. They have been since 1940's. I'm gonna tell you know, if the enemy from the east gets any ideas again, these roads are gonna rain hell and firestone.
And these are to be replaced in the near future by a new Sako rifle, based on AR-15 IIRC (might remember this wrong). Currently in testing in 5.56 and 7.62 NATO calibers, though discussion exists on testing 6.8 as well, but no decision on that yet.
One thing I think people fail to realize is that Finnish border guards aren't quite as civilian as their counterparts in other countries. They operate under the ministry of interior as a "civilian" part for legal reasons, but the border guards have military training, many of them in recon roles and the Finnish border guards are equipped with anti-tank weapons. I doubt those are meant to be used against civilians attempting to illegally cross the border.
Defenses wouldn't be spread out evenly on the border, it's mostly just roadless wilderness especially on Russian side further north you look. There's only handful on potential routes into Finland from logistical perspective, these are very well known on both sides.
Have you ever watched Finnish Brutality? The Finns eat that shit up. One thing about the Finns is that they tend to take russian/soviet weapons and improve them. The Maxim, the Mosin Nagant, the Valmet are all examples of it. They know they're outgunned so they take the gear and maximize the effectiveness whereas russia is happy to just mass produce weapons that work but aren't refined. I love the M39 Nagant rifle, the one I shot was from 44 and could still shoot 1 inch groups at 100 meters.
No need to spread artillery or forces along the border. There is not that many routes where the enemy could invade, as east Finland is full of forests, lakes and swamps. What it is lacking is multiple large roads and railways.
In everything you have to take into account the geography. First, most of the Finnish border doesn't have to be defended at all, as it is just forrest with almost no roads on either side of the border, and praticularly on the Russian. Second, the terrain is usually not very suitable for big tank pushes with wide open stretches of land. Third, the huge amount of lakes in the Eastern parts makes it hard for an invader to make inroads. All of this is a huge part of the strategy of the FDF, and why we e.g. don't even think that we should have a huge fleet of tanks. They simply wouldn't be that useful.
Assault rifle is "best replica ever made from AK-47" said by mister Kalashnikov. It fits AK-47 magazines, it's generally named RK62 (updates in optics and shit) but magazines don't fit AK-47, genius 😂 It will be replaced in some time with SAKO's latest NATO-caliber rifle.
Nordic countries have signed a pact that all of our airforces will work as one airforce. That means that in a few years there will be 125 f35 and atleast 80 JAS Gripens defending this area. I reckon that's quite significant.
With both Finland and Sweden being in NATO Russia is truly snookered in the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea. Having a citizen military force is great for public participation in the national defence. The national service can be aggravatingly hard (as an artillery weather officer I had week long field exercises with about 2 hours of sleep every day, a friend fell right into REM sleep in a truck, and lost two teeth), but the end result is all good.
6:35 While RK is a variant of an AK, it it is a different platform. The reasoning behind RK was that nobody is going to help Finland so might as well make a better version of an AK that can utilize captured ammunition. Not better, not worse but designed for a purpose. Other countries like Israel have adopted the platform and make their version of it. During the cold war there was no reason to go with other than 7.62x39mm since historically, Finland has been promised material help with the default NATO platforms, but in reality, never received any aid. So as a country with a fraction of the population of the only possible national threat, it made complete sense to adopt a weapon that uses the same ammunition. Until recently the model made nearly 50 years ago, the only drawback of it was the cumbersome way to attach modern day optics to it. Now that we have US strategic bombers doing flyover over Finland, the future rifle of the Finnish army is most likely to be the NATO compatible 5.56x45mm calibre assault rifle that will be developed by Sako and made available for evaluation by 2025. Sweden and Finland decided to adopt an AR-based platform, consisting in a 5.56x45mm NATO AR-15 variant for general issue. If you are into guns, you have heard of Sako. edit: would love to see a reaction to something that we have in Finland, a Voluntary Defence Training. After your mandatory service, or if you are just a civilian, there is an organization that provides grass root basics to very specific rolers in a case of armed conflist. It is en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defence_Training_Association_of_Finland that basically allows you to sign up for courses from cyber secutiry meant for all the people despite the previous experience, to squad based tactics, to specific weapon platform training. Most of them are 100% free of charge, some charge to compensate the meals offered if it is a multi-day training. The course selection is in Finnsih but feel free to google translate koulutuskalenteri.mpk.fi/Koulutuskalenteri. Couple of years ago when the Eastern threat was becoming imminent this video was made ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-c2ka0idTRw0.html.
You can check wikipedia "new Finnish service rifle" it will not be 5.56. We have established decades ago that any 22 caliber rounds are useless in our forests with a lot of bushes.
Finland is prepared to defend itself as well as a country of this size can. For example, Finland has a few times bigger artillery than Ukraine, but most importantly, there is enough ammunition. NATO will then supplement our defense with e.g. raising the attack threshold and enabling nuclear retaliation. Finland and Sweden then offer support for the defense of the Baltics, which can be seen as a benefit to NATO.
The MBT´s we have are about 100 Leopard 1A6 and also close to 100 Leopard 1A4, IFV we have are CV9030 and BMP-2, APC´s are the Patria/SISU AMV, XA300/20x/18x series
Norway was occupied by Germany. England, well, they declared war against Finland because Finland was more or less allied with Germany. And Sweden, they actually helped us with volunteer soldiers and by offering place for civilians to retreat. Not sure but quite, they gave us some material help too.
you don't need that in uk. you are an island and not even close to action. Finland we know and are trained for russia. Only enemy ever, like 1000 years.Their tactics haven't changed except they di cyber war already in baltic region With sweden, and norway, We can hold for it. They haven't "recent history" of trying to be invaded. We do. It's no secret that we still hit and run tactics bc heavy forest, and simply don't have same military power. They'll pay heavy price and it's also why we know our enemy. We don't really want usa trying to take command what they don't know. We are prepare for just 1 enemy and we know how to deal with it. That's knowledge what you get from fiinland. IT's not artillery...which is big. It's ground forces what moves all the time and guerilla tactics. I served....whoooo Thx for your service. khehe, everybody serves here and we don't invade outher countries. We are quite happy with what we got. you know...
My opinion on conscription is that not every one even need to serve in armed branches there can be a civil services which is more on disaster prevention and not even every one need to serve on crisis times...depends on the crisis but it teaches some good social and mental skills when you have to do tasks that you don't want to those skill translates well to civilian life and cohesive society and culture as everybody has a stake in the said society.