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Finnish Defense Forces’ Moto Video Is Absolutely Breathtaking

This article was originally published at funker530.com

The Finnish Defense Forces Combat Camera team just released a well-edited video that is absolutely breathtaking in its high definition imagery of a picturesque landscape being ravaged by technologically advanced military hardware.

The Finnish military public relation’s video releases have been of top notch quality for many years, dating back as far, or further, than their “Shrieking Shrapnel” footage, when they placed action cameras in the impact areas of artillery ranges. We have continuously blogged their work here on Funker530.

The stunning visuals were recorded in recently concluded military training exercises that involved Swedish and Norwegian troops in addition to the Finnish Defense Forces and the Finnish Border Guards.

The artillery and multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) footage was obtained in an exercise called Pohjoinen 17, which occurred in the vicinity of Rovajärvi from the 13th to the 24th of November 2017. The training event involved nearly 5,000 Finnish service members and 800 vehicles. Additional footage came from the exercise NORTHER17, which included troops from two other Scandinavian nations.

The international exercise NORTHER17 involved troops of Sweden and Norway, and the training operation was part of the greater NORDEFCO (Nordic Defense Cooperation), which isn’t a command structure, but more of a regional relationship that focuses on interoperability between the militaries of the Nordic countries in the face of outside threats.

While the three nations have unique and independent foreign military policies, they share deep cultural and historical heritage that ties them to one another. Of the three, only Norway is a part of NATO, and it isn’t likely that Finland or Sweden will ever join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization at the risk of pushing Russia to react harshly. Yet, Finland and Sweden are considered very close NATO partners.

Under the NORDEFCO relationship, Norway would come to the aid of Finland should Russia attempt to aggressively annex part or all of Finland. Then, once Norway is engaged in hostilities with Russia, NATO would (theoretically) have to act in support of Norway.

However, that kind of commitment would have incredible global implications and likely trigger a World War scenario. Would today’s European leadership have that kind of resolve? We may find out in our lifetimes.