The K9 artillery, a 155 mm self-propelled howitzer, known for its high mobility, accuracy, and firepower, operated by the Karelia Brigade, one of the three Finnish Army readiness brigades, take position during the NATO Exercise Dynamic Front, on November 17, 2024 near Rovaniemi, in Finnish Lapland. Agence France-Presse
ROVANIEMI, Finland — Finland is hosting its first large-scale Nato artillery exercise since the Nordic nation joined the military alliance last year, with live fire drills starting on Sunday.
The exercise conducted in the northern Lapland region in November is part of Dynamic Front 25, the largest Nato artillery exercise ever held in Europe, with fire drills in Finland as well as Estonia, Germany, Romania and Poland.
Article continues after this advertisementRunning from 4 to 28 November, it marks the first time Nato allies are practicing artillery fire at a large scale on Finnish soil.
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Article continues after this advertisement“We work on interoperability with our allies, to carry out artillery fire in coherence with our Nato allies,” said Romain, a French army captain and unit commander of the Ecrins battery of the 93rd mountain artillery regiment, giving only his first name.
Article continues after this advertisementHis team was dressed in warm camouflage uniforms in a field where the temperature was a few degrees below zero Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit).
Article continues after this advertisementUp to 3,600 soldiers from Finland, the United States, Sweden, Britain, France and some other Nato members were rehearsing as a damp cold took hold of Lapland’s vast arctic landscapes.
The Lapland firing range and training area, called Rovajarvi, is Europe’s biggest.
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“The area itself is the reason why allies want to come to the Rovajarvi exercise area to train”, Finnish Colonel Janne Makitalo, director of the exercise, told AFP.
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It allows for “multi-sided tactical fire exchanges for field artillery” while training soldiers to handle the challenging conditions and varying terrain in the Arctic regionfatpanda casino, Makitalo said.
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