Virginia National Guard Soldiers assigned to the Lynchburg-based 1st Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team conducted an infantry exchange with Finnish Defense Forces Nov. 16 - 24, 2024, in Finland.
The exchange was conducted in support of the Department of Defense's State Partnership Program, in which Virginia and Finland have been formal partners since 2024.
During the exchange, a group of five Red Dragon Soldiers spent several days observing the troops of Finland’s Kymi Jaeger Battalion, Karelian Brigade conduct a variety of live fire training exercises, and also gained familiarity with Finnish firearms.
The Red Dragons, consisting of Capt. Kenneth Swan, Capt. Patrick Crute, Sgt. 1st Class Michael Snellings, Staff Sgt. Andrew Edgar and Staff Sgt. Kurtis Lyle, conducted a zero and qualification with the Finnish service rifle, known as the RK-62, on a 50-meter flat range with fixed targets which move up and down.
After the qualifications, the team observed the Finns conducting a squad live-fire exercise, which looked different from similar exercises back home in Virginia.
“Our immediate observation was that there are no dedicated live-fire ranges in the training area,” said Swan, commander of the Lexington-based Bravo Company, 1-116th. “All ranges are what we would call ‘non-standard,’ and employ individual, transportable targets that are controlled via remote.”
The Red Dragons also observed mortar live-fire and combined-arms exercises involving dismounted infantry, mortars, tanks and sniper assets. During the combined-arms exercise, Edgar and Lyle participated as riflemen with the dismounted platoon, gaining first-hand experience in a Finnish live-fire exercise.
The Finnish forces impressed Swan on multiple levels.
“During this event we observed that Finnish Soldiers remain in high morale while on mission and are disciplined regarding their Soldier skills,” said Swan. “They always move towards proper cover and once they go prone, they remain there until told otherwise. Team leaders do not have to tell Soldiers to go prone from the knee and they stay in the prone regardless of snow or puddles.”
The Finns performance was made more impressive considering many of the troops participating are fairly new to military operations.
“It was incredibly impressive to see conscripts that entered military service six months ago confidently execute in multiple combined-arms life fire exercises over the course of a week in adverse conditions,” Swan said.
Other events during the exchange include more live-fire exercises, an explosives demonstration and facility tours.
The SPP agreement between the VNG and Finnish Defense Forces builds on several decades of friendship and partnership between the two organizations. Finnish troops served alongside the Fort Belvoir-based 29th Infantry Division during the Stabilization 10 rotation in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2001-2002, and VNG personnel have trained side-by-side with their Finnish counterparts on numerous occasions over the years. More recently, Virginia Soldiers and Airmen competed in a Finnish Sniper Championship and participated in the Arctic Forge 23 exercise. This summer Finnish personnel came to Virginia to participate in the Cyber Fortress 3.0 exercise, hosted by the 91st Cyber Brigade.
Read more about the VNG’s partnership with Finland at https://vngpao.info/yckwa597.