Expert Bloggers

By Robin Häggblom Russia built a heliport on Gogland . Russian news agency TASS provided some details. A Mi-26, the Soviet C-130 sized helicopter, flew in the required special equipment including the surface plating. The heliport was then made by the…

By Robin Häggblom The day started with what sounded like a rare but not unique message on Twitter by the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation: The current search by the in the premises of a company located in the Turku Archipelago may…

By Simo Raittila Finnland’s basic income experiment will end – as planned. In recent days there have been some news sites claiming that the Finnish basic income experiment was given an abrupt end by the government. The organization that runs the…

By Robin Häggblom In the shadow of the HX-fighter competition, the state of the ground based air defences in Finland has again appeared in the headlines. The short story is that in the mid-90’s Finland acquired the Russian Buk-M1 air defence system…

I haven’t been spending too much time thinking about startups lately, but since it’s that Slush time of year I thought I’d give it a go and see what comes out. The subject of this column probably isn’t what…

By Petri Mäkelä The Finnish Air Force, Ilmavoimat, is holding its largest exercise of the year, Ruska 17, alongside Swedish air assets this week. The exercise was announced more than a year ago. The exercise focuses on training an integrated air-defense force…

By Robin Haggblom Perhaps the final sign to show that Sweden has now moved out of the notorious ‘strategic blackout’ is the major exercise Aurora 17 currently underway in the southern parts of the country. In absolute numbers this is…

By Petri Mäkelä The eyes of European military experts and leaders have been focused on the upcoming Russian Zapad2017 exercise for a while now. When compared to the hype, the official Russian description of the exercise is rather underwhelming. Russia…

By Petri Mäkelä Exactly a year ago I wrote about the Russian Maskirovka mobilizations that are also known as “snap drills” or “readiness inspections”. Some of these drills have been massive and enough troops were set in motion, that the forces could’ve…

Author: Marco Bombino The 2001 born age-group is looking like a very promising group of prospects for Finland. There are some high-end players, especially at forward, that we have covered on the site with scouting reports. Here I will feature…