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2021

09.09.2021 13:36

Government’s Defence Report published

At its meeting on 9 September 2021, the Government approved the Defence Report to be submitted to Parliament.

The Report and its implementation ensure that Finland's defence capability meets the requirements of the operating environment. The Report and its implementation will extend until the end of decade.

Finland's defence environment remains tense and difficult to predict. In addition to the land, sea and air domains, cyber and information environments and space are highlighted. The importance of the neighbouring Arctic regions is growing.

The defence administration prepares to counter broad-spectrum influencing, together with other actors, as part of the evolving national comprehensive security model. Interagency cooperation must be further developed in the fields of cyber defence, strategic communication and information defence. Threats to the cyber operating environment and related national development needs will be assessed in more detail in a new study. 

The Defence Report will reorganize the force structure of the Defence Forces wartime units. In the future, wartime troops will be divided into operative and local troops.  The number of local troops will be increased from 2025 by transforming the majority of the regional troops into local troops. At the same time, the range of duties of local troops will expand and the standards will rise. The importance of cooperation between authorities and the role of reservists will be emphasised.

The cost savings obligations directed at the Defence Forces during previous years and the currently available resources make it challenging to maintain activities and readiness on the current level. This also restricts preparations for a crisis or warfare of long duration.

The maintenance of readiness, training of conscripts and the development of new capabilities require a gradual increase in the number of personnel in the Defence Forces by 500 person-years by the end of the 2020s.

Close international defence cooperation strengthens Finland's defence capability. Finland must have the ability to work together with key partners, based on a separate decision, in all security situations affecting Finland, including during a crisis.

While the President and the Ministerial Committee guided the preparation of the Government’s Defence Report, it was prepared as in a cross-governmental cooperation and the Parliamentary Monitoring Group was consulted. This is the second Government Defence Report; the previous one was completed on 16 February 2017.

 
The report was published in full on the Ministry of Defence website:

in Finnish http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-383-820-8

in Swedish http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-383-836-9

in English http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-383-852-9

 

Inquiries: Director General Esa Pulkkinen, Ministry of Defence, tel. +358 295 140 300 and Karoliina Honkanen, Ministerial Adviser, tel. + 358 295 140 354.


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