Are Finland & Sweden Prepared for War?

Hey spare parts army thanks for watching! Looks like I've misjudged Finland's conscripts apparently they are better trained than I may have given them credit for. Thanks for the feedback! Play Conflict of Nations for FREE on PC, Android or iOS: con.onelink.me/kZW6/TaskAndPurpose Receive an Amazing New Player Pack, only available for the next 30 days!

Fellow infantry guy here. Got a chance to hang out with Finnish and Swedish troops in Afghanistan. Great people.

You underestimate Finland's troop count, Finland has around 900 000 troops in reserves, not only 280 000. SO it's 280 000 wartime strength, troops that are combat ready right off the bat if need be, and 900 000 reservists to filter in after that.

I'm swedish and I know damn well that my finish brother is never ever gonna give up. If there is anyone I want beside me in tough situation it has to be my brothers in Finland.

You said Finnish conscripts are poorly motivated. When you have Russia as your neighbour you are always highly motivated. Todays conscripts and reserves all had grandfathers or greatgrandfathers who fought in the two latest wars in 1939- 40 and 41-44. On every churchyard in Finland there is a stone, the heroes graven, with the names of the men both very young and older who gave their lives for Finland and its independence. The Finnish SISU/ fighting spirit still lives on for ever.

A couple of comments on the Finnish military: 1) I have no idea to what the video refers to as "200 logistics trucks and 60 main logistics trucks", but well to me it implies that the Finnish military has 260 trucks. I couldn't easily find "easy figures" for how many trucks the military has, but the number is significantly higher. Probably something like 3k+ with all the shit in the storage as well. Hell, we had Soviet Zils hanging around on one field in my brigade when I was in the army some years ago and if they have kept those, they have kept every single Finnish produced truck since the wayback times as well. And even that number probably is somewhere around at least 1-2k. Probably during war time they would confiscate additional civilian vehicles as well, but the amount of material the Finnish military has for land warfare is at least to some degree tied to that "280k troops during war time". The Finnish army, like probably all armies, is also very good at hoarding stuff in warehouses. As corruption is not really a problem in Finland (at least in this sense), I am quite confident that those trucks are also in reality in the storage houses and someone probably also every now and then checks their condition. In terms of the rail roads, probably all militaries use them to transport stuff but I haven't at least heard before that it would be the basis of the Finnish military. 2) Finland spends 350-450 million euros on maintenance annually, not 350-450 thousand euros on maintenance (1e=~1.05USD at the moment). 3) Finnish military employs about 12.500 people. Out of these, around 7500-8000 are CAREER soldiers and rest are civilian employees. That 3k figure maybe comes from the amount of CAREER officers in the Finnish army, which indeed is quite close to 3k. There are about 20k conscripts all the time in the military as well, on top of that 12.5k. 3) Finland has a mandatory conscription for men aged 18-29 (voluntary for women). Around 70 % of men go through with the conscription (165-347 days in the military). In total about 900k Finnish people (mostly men, around 10k women are also in the reserve) are in the reserve (officers and NCOs are in the reserve until they are 61, grunts until they are 51). University etc... don't give you an excuse to not go to the army. Getting "not fit for duty"-papers is the easiest way to avoid going to the army if one so desires. The other relatively popular option is to go the civilian service for 347 days. Going to prison is also an alternative, there you'll spend 173 days (although nowadays it will be house arrest, not actual prison time usually). 4) That 280k is more or less the ballpark number for what would be called to service in case of war. When I was a kid, the figure was presented at 300k, then it fell to 230k and now it is at 280k.The potential pool is however that 900k reservists and the army takes what they need and want before and during the war. When my dad was in the army during the Cold War, the official figure for war time strength varied somewhere between 500-700k. In the Continuation War (1941-44), around 500k were at the front at the height of the mobilization. So the figures are quite fluid and based on the circumstances and the need to say something besides "we will adapt". 5) Motivation of conscripts and Finns is quite high, the most recent polling data indicate that 83 % of the Finnish population think that Finland should be defended militarily in case of war. In a Finnish mind, this means should we fight against Russia. In Ukraine similar polls indicated about 50-60 % willingness to fight just prior to the Russian invasion on February. I guess that has already given them a relatively good and motivated fighting force? In Finland these figures have been relatively stable for decades, usually hovering somewhere between 70-80 %. 6) Conscripts are probably not as trained for urban warfare, explosive ordnance disposal etc... very specific military tasks. Maneuvering in groups might be less drilled as in professional militaries. This is partly dealt with (mandatory or non-mandatory) repetition training and voluntary additional service after conscription (which is relatively popular). 7) Conscripts fulfill certain positions significantly better than career soldiers. Finland won the latest NATO Locked Shield Cyber Defense competition. My guess is that the victory came not with career soldiers but with conscripts. Most of the nerds who work in cybersecurity companies as their day jobs and are best the country has to offer are also in the military reserve. And take part in repetition exercises as well. Same goes for electronic warfare and other specialized tasks. People who would be working with those tasks during war are the best the country has to offer and not the best the army was able to recruit. 8) Finnish history with Russia is quite complex and contains a significant amount of "finlandization". We lost in the WW2 against Russia, kind of lived as the capitalist puppet of the USSR for 50+ years (we didn't get annexed), got used to how things are and slept through the time when Baltics and others with "more intimate relations" with Russia slipped into NATO. With political will we could have joined NATO in the early 2000s as well, but our political leadership back then was very harshly against it. It is easy to be hindsight biased, but well, we mostly have gotten along with Russia until now. The shock of the war in Ukraine, the destruction, rape and killings was quite a big eye-opener for the bulk of the population. As there has always been kind of this eternal belief that Russia might come over the border at some point again, the minds of the people regarding NATO changed extremely fast. Also, there is really no upsides for working or getting along with Russia anymore so therefore there is really no downside to joining NATO.

During the Winter War, a Soviet scout unit was advancing up a pass between two large rock outcrops, when they heard over their radio, "Hey Reds! One of our Finnish reservists is stronger than ten of your fighters." The Soviet scouting team requested permission to show the Finnish farmers who was in charge, and were granted permission to proceed. They were never heard from again. The Soviet commander sent 100 men in an expeditionary force up the same pass the following week. They received the same radio call, this time, "Hey Ivan! One of our men is stronger than 100 of yours! Come and see!" The Soviet commander steeled himself and ordered his force through the pass, but they too disappeared. Another week later, the Soviet commander and his main force had arrived at the same mountain pass behind their advanced forces. When they were settling down to establish a refueling depot for armored vehicles, command received another radio call. "Hey! Listen up Soviets! One Finn is stronger than one thousand of your communists!" This made the commander's blood boil. At once, he mustered one thousand soldiers and ordered them to advance up the pass in fighting formation to eradicate anything on the other side. After three hours of gunfire and explosions, one Soviet soldier finally crawled back through the pass. As he was being carried back to the first aid tent, the commander stood by his side to comfort the brave Soviet soldier who had survived such a calamity. The survivor looked up at him, and with horror in his eyes, said, "Don't send any more men Comrade Commissar, it's a trap! There are two of them!"

Sweden and Finland have very close relations, like all Nordic countries do, but Finland is a bit special for Sweden because Finland was the eastern half of Sweden for 700 years. They are our brothers.

There was a media press conference between Swedens military officials and Finlands military officials. One reporter asked "How will you able communicate when you speak 2 completely differend languages" Both nations officials looked at each other until the Finnish official said in English "How do you think we can manage" Swedens official replied " I don't know" then they looked back at the reported who asked the question. Other funny was is that 2 junior sergeants were talking about the fact that what happens if we don't get attacked from the east. Senior sergeant heard this and said "You're right, you'll never know if Russia decides to attack from Sweden."

30k ready in hours. 280k in days. And after that, the rest 900k reservists when/if needed . Greetings from Finland 🇫🇮

Just had a miltary excercise with Finnish Jäegers. After 3 days of mock battles, I have to say Finnish are extremely well trained, motivated and will absolutely destroy the enemy if Russia invades. The technological difference is just huge.

As a Swede/Finn and part of Swedish Homeguard I'd like to emphasize the fact that we're trained and give orders to fight guerilla war, regroup and make decisions even when the rest of the Defense fails or command chain breaks. We know our home forests and the population living there. Our order is to never surrender.

I have my highest regard and admiration to our Finnish brothers/sisters and proud to have such close relations. They should not be taken lightly. /from Sweden

I lived 5 years in Finland and I need to say, geography of this country is dream of every defending force. It's rocky terrain everywhere and a lot of lakes and rivers. Geography is often forgotten when we speak about wars, but it is something you can't appreciate enough.

The difference in Finland’s conscripts is a large portion of their population still trains even after their service. Entire families of adults train together and are skilled at winter warfare. Whereas Russian conscripts tend to be young, lower class socioeconomic status, and poorly trained. Finland’s people are as much of an asset at their border and equipment.

I'm Swedish but men on my fathers side fought in the finnish-russian wars. Swedish and Finnish sometimes make jokes about each other but we are brothers when it comes to the Russian threat.

Finland and Sweden complement each other well Finland can focus on its ground forces to hold Russia at bay While Sweden has a strong navy and modern air force that can quickly come to Finland's aid Thus, Finland's small population doesn't have to spend heavily on naval and air power

Finnish artillery is famous for being incredibly accurate. It doesn't make a difference if the tube was forged in Soviet Union, it matters where it's pointed and what the fire support specialists do.

One important point: With Sweden and Finland in NATO - together with Norway (who has been a member since its foundation) - it will be MUCH easier to mobilize troops and equipment through the entire region. I.e. in Norway - there are some areas where the country is so "skinny" and lightly populated that if you take out a single bridge - there is NO way to cross - other than going by sea. You could cross easily by going into Sweden and back in again. But THAT is illegal. Unless they are in NATO.... Same with fighter planes patrolling that must avoid crossing into Swedish and Finish airspace (a lot of intercepts of Russian craft by Norwegian F-16 and F-35). That will be so much easier and effective with both of them in NATO.

Swedens the only one who managed to lock on to the blackbird with a missile if I’m not mistaken! The Nimitz story is so insane too, the US sub hunters apparently got so angry and frustrated that they wanted to give up. Also one of the only few to “sink” a Nimitz in a game. Quite interesting.