The Armoured Brigade will lead the Army mechanized exercise Mighty Arrow 25 at the Pohjankangas Firing Range and Training Area in Niinisalo from 24 April to 13 May. Approximately 2800 persons will take part in the exercise, most of them conscripts and about 700 international troops.
Service personnel and conscripts from the Armoured Brigade, Karelia Brigade, Utti Jaeger Regiment, Jaeger Brigade, Pori Brigade, Army Academy, the Finnish Defence Forces C5 Agency, Centre for Military Medicine and the 2nd Logistics Regiment will participate in the exercise. The exercise will involve Army flight operations. Allied troops from the United Kingdom, Germany, Lithuania, and Estonia will also take part in the exercise. The share of international troops of the total strength of the exercise will be about 700 persons and some 200 vehicles. The exercise will be commanded by the Commander of the Armoured Brigade Colonel Juhana Skyttä.
- Exercise Mighty Arrow 25 will enhance the readiness, capabilities and immediate execution capability of the Army’s mechanized troops for the needs of Finland and the Alliance as well. The participation of the Allied troops will enhance interoperability between troops consisting of different nationalities and create an international operating environment for the exercise in which Finns will train leadership and planning according to NATO standards, Colonel Skyttä says.
- In the exercise, the mechanized troops will train a battle group’s offensive and delaying operations in particular. Operating requires the different branches to cooperate seamlessly. The troops will have to be able to operate together with air support represented in this exercise by the British AH-64E Apache combat helicopter detachment, among others, Colonel Skyttä says.
The exercise also has an objective of improving readiness to receive Allied assistance and troops. This year, the combat enhancement and force integration training phase (CET&FIT) has been prolonged, so that the troops consisting of different nationalities will understand the used methods, terms and procedures in the same way from the get-go.
The share of Finnish troops in the exercise will be about 2100 persons, including approximately 1700 conscripts. The Defence Forces will have almost 500 vehicles in the exercise, including approximately 160 tanks and armoured vehicles in total.
The international troops’ equipment will include, among others, AH-64E Apache combat helicopters (United Kingdom), CV9035 infantry fighting vehicles (Estonia), BOXER armoured personnel carriers (Germany), and M113 armoured personnel carriers (Lithuania). Operating drones has kept increasing from previous years. This year, several different types of drones will be operated in the exercise by national and Allied troops. Operating various kinds of drones is an integral part of modern infantry battle.
The training exercise entity of the Army will start at the end of April to continue until early June in all of Finland. Read more: Army training exercises this spring to focus on strengthening joint operating - Maavoimat - The Finnish Army
