Chief of Staff of the Defence Command to change – Lieutenant General Vesa Virtanen will assume the task on 1 July

Lieutenant General Vesa Virtanen will assume his new task as Chief of Staff of the Defence Command on Friday 1 July 2022. His predecessor, Lieutenant General Eero Pyötsiä will transfer into the reserve.

The new Chief of Staff of the Defence Command, Lieutenant General Vesa Virtanen (b. 1966) has served as the Finnish Defence Force’s ACOS Personnel since 2021. Over the years, he has served, among others, as ACOS Planning in the Defence Command, Commander of the Kainuu Brigade, Secretary General of the Security Committee at the Ministry of Defence, researcher at Harvard University in the USA, Chief of Branch in the Defence Command, and Battalion Commander at the Guard Jaeger Regiment. His promotion to Lieutenant General took effect in June 2022.

Defence Command is the joint command headquarters of Commander of the Finnish Defence Forces

The Defence Command is the joint command headquarters of Commander of the Finnish Defence Forces and an authority part of the state central administration tasked to plan and execute the Finnish Defence Forces’ joint operations as well as to steer the activity of the services, of the National Defence University, and of its subordinate establishments. Comprising altogether ten divisions, an internal audit unit and an executive office, the Defence Command also commands five agencies.

According to Lieutenant General Virtanen, the change of tasks of Chief of Staff of the Defence Command now takes place at an interesting time. 

– On top of the Defence Command’s to do list are items such as, among others, sustainment of defence readiness required by our security environment and development of materiel readiness, execution of strategic procurement programmes, and impacts of the NATO accession, Lieutenant General Virtanen sums up.