Readiness units, local units and thousands of Allied troops to operate across Finland in the Army’s first exercises of the year

The Finnish Army will carry out exercises, involving conscripts and Allied troops, in various locations in Finland in February-March. The series of exercises will culminate in Exercise Cold Response 26, which will be organised in Rovajärvi in March and involve about 3,500 Finnish soldiers and 4,000 Allied troops.

The first national exercises of the year will involve readiness units. Participants of these exercises are conscripts and personnel of various brigade-level units, and they will be organised in the garrison training areas, starting on 19 January. One objective of these exercises is to ascertain the capability of the readiness units, including the capability to plan tasks and operations quickly, to move to the area of operation and the actual execution of the operation. The exercises’ aim is to enhance cooperation with other conscript units.

Participants of the local defence exercise Lion Stone 26, organized in February and March in various locations across Finland, will include not only conscripts and personnel but also a large number of reservists. Reservists in local defence units will get a chance to carry out challenging combat tasks and to see how the training received in the past benefits them. The aim of the exercises is to enhance conscripts’ and reservists’ ability to respond to hybrid influencing activities and to act in cooperation with other authorities to safeguard the vital functions of society. In addition to soldiers of the Army, a substantial number of authorities and regional actors participate in the exercises, as well as a small number of soldiers from the Allied countries. Brigade-level units will inform of their exercises closer to their starting date.

Military construction exercises will also be organized during the first months of the year. The Defence Forces has already made deals with volunteer landowners and will make more from February onwards. The Defence Forces pay the landowners for a right to build defensive constructions on their land. In military construction exercises, fortifications will be built in cooperation with other authorities and Finnish construction industry. The purpose is to ensure smooth operation in all situations and to gain experience in building different kinds of fortifications. Often the constructions built in exercises are left in place.

Exercise Cold Response 26 involves a Swedish division and thousands of reservists

The multinational Cold Response 26, with about 25,000 participants from the Allied countries, is the most important exercise of the first quarter of the year. The exercise is led by Norway, taking place in Norway, Finland and Sweden on 9-20 March 2026. The part in Finland will involve about 7,500 soldiers from Finland, Sweden, the United States, France, Italy and the United Kingdom.

–  For the Finnish Defence Forces, this is the most important exercise of the year, especially in terms of logistics testing. A substantial number of troops will be transported to Finland by road and air, the largest individual unit being a Swedish Division headquarters and its subordinates. In terms of procedures, equipment and soldiers, our interoperability with the Allies is already at a very high level, but no combat is possible until forces have been successfully transported to the area of operation, says director of the army-specific Field Training Exercise, Commander of the Jaeger Brigade Colonel Marko Kivelä.

The number of Allied troops in the exercise is about 4,000, of whom about 2,000 come from Sweden. The Finnish Defence Forces is involved with 3,500 participants, of whom about 2,000 are reservists. The key objective of the exercise Cold Response 26 is to practice strengthening of NATO’s Northern area and cooperation in challenging Arctic conditions.

–  The exercise has more participants from the Allied countries than from Finland, and the majority of the Finnish forces are reservists. The way I see it, this is a strong indication of the high-quality skills that the Finnish conscription system can produce and that can be complemented by capabilities of our Allies. I also believe that conditions in Rovajärvi in March are suitably and equally challenging to the Finnish and Allied troops alike, Colonel Kivelä says.

The objective of Cold Response 26 is to improve the abilities to respond to different threats and crises as well as to develop the military capability and interoperability of the Alliance on all command levels. The forces training in Finland will be led by NATO’s Multi-Corps Land Component Command Northwest (MCLCC-NW), reinforced by the Alliance's soldiers for the exercise.

Utti Jaeger Regiment will also have exercises in Northern Finland’s harsh winter conditions during February and March. The exercise activities will involve the Defence Forces’ personnel, conscripts, reservists and soldiers from the Allied countries, about 1,000 persons in total. The exercise area is vast, covering the Finnish territory north of the towns of Oulu and Nurmes. Exercise operations are carried out mostly in small teams.