The Finnish air-force

Inspired by Matejs thread Slovak air-force I decided to make my own thread about my countrys air-force, the Finnish air-force.

The Finnish air-force was established 6 march 1918, as a result of the 1st world war. because I know that you don't want to read about planes in the past (at least some of you) I decided not to write it again, but to give you some useful links if you are interested in Finnish (air-force) history.

www.sci.fi...

hkkk.fi...

misc.kitreview.com...

And when it comes to todays equipment, I think that some of you might think that this is interesting

Finnish air-force today

The Finnish air-force today is a quite manuverable and simple force, ready to defend the Finnish territory. Our air-force is mostly made of american palnes, but we have also used Russian, Swedish and German planes. The Finnish air-forces main job today is to protect the finnish terrotory, and give support to the ground forces if a war should begin. Our air-force today consists of...

The F/A-18 "Hornet"

The F/A-18 is our main attackplane, and only "real" fighter type. It is a fighter variant from the Boeing IDS F/A-18 Hornet. the only real difference is that our variant lacks some capabilities: avionics, target acquisition and weapon control features, limiting its capability to engage surface targets. However these capabilities should soon be a part of the air-force. Due the uppgrading. The same variant of our HN class is the Swiss Hornet.

Finland decided to do buy 63 F/A 18 total in 1992. 7 of them were 2 seated D models, and the rest 1 seated C models. one rason why "we" chose the Hornet was it's flexible electronics, price and maintainability. The F/A-18 was the only plane in the competition wich could actually land/ lift from "non" air-force bases, highways etc. etc. A very useful thing is a war should start, and all bases would be destroyed.

The Finnish air-force has lost one F/A-18, and one is under repairs.

After the decision to buy the Hornets, the Finnish air-force has decided to upgrade the F/A-18 with ground attacking capabilities, and AIM-9X missiles


The BAE Hawk

The Finnish BAE Hawks were made in Britan, and then transported here. 50 planes were ordered 1977. In 1990 A decision was made to order seven more Hawks. These planes are used in training, but can also be used in war situations. Finland has lost seven Hawks


The Learjet 35 A/S

The Finnish Learjet is a modified american Learjet plane. it is used for transportation, and guarding of the Finnish territory. The only difference is teh interior, and the wingtips, also the front mounted camera does not exist in the orginal version.


Fokker F.27 Mk

The Fokker is a pretty old cargo plane. The Finnish air-force posesses two of these Dutch modelled planes, but they should soon be replaced. Some say that they willbe repalced by C-130, or the new Airbus variant A400M. But the air-force has also tested other planes C-27J CASA C-235, G-222


Thread about new transport planes

Redigo L-90 TP (RG)

The [=http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/2557-redigo.jpg]Redigo[/url] is a Finnish made plane manufactured by "Valmet". ten planes were built, and they are used for photographing etc etc.


Piper Chieftain (PC)

The Piper Cheiftain is a well-known plane, that is also modified to the Finnish air-force. it is also used for photogrphing etc. etc.


Vinka (VN)

Last is the Vinka. The legendary Finnish plane that is also manufactured by "Valmet". 30 planes were made, 28 of them are still in use. This plane servers as the first training plane that Finnish pilots touch.


Notice, I didn't put ay information of our choppesr here, because they are under our "land-forces" There I saved a bit of job...


last but not least our motto... Some of you might look at my signature and wonder "What does that mean?" it means that our Strenght lies in our quality, from the latin "Qualitias Potentia Nostra"...

here are some of my pictures from an air-show at the military base in "Kauhava"

The "Vinka"

Vinka

The"Redigo"

Redigo

The "Hawk"

Hawk

Hawk_2

The F/A-18 "Hornet"

Hornet_1

Hornet_2



[edit on 5-2-2006 by Figher Master FIN]

Additional information on Finnish army aviation.
Helicopter types in use:

Mi-8
Medium transport helos were purchsed from Russia during 1973-1979. They are unarmed and used for transport operations. They've been fitted with western avionics that allow them to be used at low-visibility flying nd freezing conditions



NH-90
These modern Europeans helos were bought together with other scandinavian countries and first were deployed 2005. They will replace the aging and maintenace intesive Mi-8s. In addition to transport they will be used for rescue and spec-ops support. They are armed with MGs only.



Hughes 500 D and E
These small helos are used for training and recon operations.




Ranger
An small recon UAV




In addition to these BorderGuard uses AB-412, AB-206 Jet Ranger and AS-332 Super Puma helicopters and DO-228 airplanes for recon. rescue and transport

Hawk trainers and F/A-18 Hornets,

similar to Australia, and Canada.

Finland also has an excellent record in WW2 against the Russians, using supposedly crap Brewster Buffalos they got one of the best kill/loss ratios of the entire war and whipped the Russians good (admittedly the Russians sent all their crap pilots and planes because they thought it would be easy.)

Dont mess with Finland

To complete the air picture, Finland has very credible SAM/AAA. Noteworthy are the SA-11 medium range SAM system (from Russia) and the latest Crotale-NG (Next Generation) from France:

SA-11:
www.aeronautics.ru...

Crotale-NG:


[edit on 5-2-2006 by planeman]

To be honest those Crotale/XA-202 combos aren't that good, missile is ok, but it's a bitch to drive.
Finnish AA weaponry is getting some major refits because old Iglas are getting too useles, I believe some ASRAD-Rs and Umkonthos have been ordered (or will be)

You don't use the BAMSE RBS23 ALL-WEATHER AIR DEFENCE MISSILE system?



Link to army technology info on this system

Originally posted by R988

Finland also has an excellent record in WW2 against the Russians, using supposedly crap Brewster Buffalos

There was nothing 'supposed' about it, the Buffalo was without question the absolutely worst fighter deployed in WW2, there was even talk of senior people from Brewster being imprisoned! Though that never happened as far as I know. The results achieved by the Finnish pilots who were foisted with these planes is not far short of miraculous.

Not far short? Let's call a spade a spade here. It WAS miraculous. They didn't call the Buffalo the "Flying Coffin" for nothing. When I first heard about what they managed with them, I thought my friend was having a laugh at my expense. It wasn't until I looked it up and read about it that I believed him.

Waynos;
Brewster was not the worst fighter deployed in ww2: We had several worse planes flying

Bristol Bulldog IIA, Bristol Bulldog IVA, Jaktfalken II, Focke-Wulf Fw 44 J Stieglitz, Fokker D.XXI., Gloster Gauntlet II, Gloster Gladiator Mk. II.

All these were used during 1939-40 winter war, in addition to Morane saulnier M.S. 406, the fokker D.XXI might be better than brewster, i've heard pilots (including Eino Juutilainen, who prefered fokker and had 94 1/6 kills, most with Bf-109 and Hans Wind with 75 kills who liked more the brewster) say it both ways

A correction... We bought 64 hornets... not 63... And I'am proud that we used Messerschmitt Bf-109 during the war... In my opinion it was one of the best fighters during the war...



Yes, the Finnish air-force will buy new anti-air "stuff"... I suppose that they will get renewed before 2008, if you can count on the Finnish DOD...

[edit on 6-2-2006 by Figher Master FIN]

northwolf, I disagree. Planes like the Bulldog, Gladiator et al were all decent proven fighters that by 1940 suffered from being obsolete, however there was never any point in its life where the Buffalo was anything other than useless and a danger to its own pilots.

Right from the get go the Buffalo was overweight at 2.5 tones and underpowered with just 750hp. Because of its ridiculously small wing area it was also a pig to fly as well as look at.

The only US Buffaloes to see combat were those of VMF 221 at midway. 13 aircraft were destroyed out of 19 launched in a battle that last less than half an hour. The USMC never sent the Buff into action again. Quickly replacing all remainig aircraft with Wildcats.

150 RAF and 30 KLu Buffaloes in the far east were wiped out completely in less than three months, the RAF had sent its Buffaloes to Singapore at the beginning of the war, as soon as it actually got to fly them, 'out of harms way' where it was expected to never have to fire a shot, Japanese intentions then being unknown of course.

Because of this disaster, as well as the equally dire 'Buccaneer' dive bomber and management problems at the firm the US Navy had to walk into the factory in July 1944 and close it down. That this occurred at the height of the need for combat aircraft shows how bad the situation with Brewster was.

Like I said at the beginning, all the other types you mentioned were simply out of date, but the Buffalo was criminally bad.

I agree that Brewster had it flaws, but i right hands it could do the job as well as "better" planes. Ofcourse finnish tactics at the time were highly advanced compared to those of RAF, USAF or Red Army (at 1939, 1941 they had mostly renewed their tactics to the "Finnish style")

History of FAF By Lt Gen (FAF ret) Heikki Nikunen

I suggest that anyone who is interested in FAF read the above link, it's good and informative text by an man who knows the subject.

I'am gona let you guys battle this alone...

But the link was awesome Northwolf, but I think that I mentioned it in my thread... lol... never mind... Doesn't his wake sad feelings in you as a fellow Fin...



F/A-18 with the Draken and the Mig-21... And of course the Hawk...


For those who are interested, this is teh "logo" that all Finnish planes use...



BTW, I'am working on a thread about the Finnish "Thunderbirds" the Midnight Hawks...



[edit on 6-2-2006 by Figher Master FIN]

There's no battle FIN, tis merely a discussion

Maybe the Finnish officers opinion of the Buffalo is coloured by the remarkable success your pilots had with them? Just as mine is coloured by the abject failure of everyone else who flew them, including the country that invented it

Matter settled waynos, with the only exeption that jaktfalken was a worse plane than brewster, it's was marked as too dangerous to fly by guys who happily fought in brewsters..

I have some pics from LIAS05 airshow that is in my home town in every 3-5 years

This one is a ID challenge for you Waynos



Few more pics can be found here

And a bonus for waynos: the best looking fighter of all times is this

Northwolf is the plane in the fist pic above a gloster gauntlet? i enjoyed your pictures by the way looks like a good show.

Yes, I am sure thats a Gloster Gauntlet. Nice Hunter too in old Black Arrows livery, but I think the single seater was prettier

Have you a picture of the Jaktfalken? As I don't seem to have one at all as I don't have any editions of Jane's between the 1938 and 1945 ones and it isn't in either of those.

I think that i have some pics some where in a book but I might have thrown it away jus lately doh

img242.imageshack.us...


this is what you were on about ?

[edit on 6-2-2006 by buckaroo]

Thanks for the pic, I wouldn't know if it was right because I've never seen one, only read of it. However it is certainly nothing I've seen before so could be right.

Ahem, you can see why it struggled can't you However it is clearly of an earlier vintage than the Buffalo so it isn't really fair to compare it. Of course you couldn't tell the Germans that it was unfair to shoot at it either could you.

Let me get this straight, you had a book, with pictures of planes in it, and you THREW IT AWAY?

Heresy!

I know, I know I should be soundly thrashed , Ive just got too much stuff i cant even remember what it was called . heres a quick little link to www.avrosys.nu...make up for my heinous offence claiming that the jaktfalken was not as bad as we might have assumed in its day of course.