Finnish Army will develop its activities as part of the Bold Quest event
The Finnish Army will participate in the verification and testing event of Bold Quest 19.1 as part of its set training exercise activities. The Army Academy’s live-firing exercise will be organised in Rovajärvi from 30 April to 24 May 2019, and the Jaeger Brigade’s field exercise will be organised in Sodankylä from 11 to 25 May 2019. During the Bold Quest 19.1 event, the Operations Centre of the C5 systems branch will operate in Riihimäki.
The sequenced phases of the live-firing conducted by the Army Academy in Rovajärvi will be participated by personnel from Finland and from abroad. The LFX will train and develop the connectivity and interoperability of the participating nations’ systems for sustained situational awareness, command and fires. The LFX will be led by Lieutenant Colonel Ville-Veikko Vuorio from 30 April to 13 May, and Colonel Kari Pietiläinen from 14 to 24 May 2019, both from the Army Academy.
In Rovajärvi, the main part of the Finnish exercise troops and of the artillery and mortar equipment will be from the Kainuu Brigade and from the Pori Brigade. The majority of the international participants and equipment will arrive from Sweden, Belgium and France. The exercise preparations will be underway in the area of Rovajärvi already at the end of April. The LFX phase will last from 12 to 24 May 2019.
The field training exercise Riekko 19 of the Jaeger Brigade will bring to the area of Sodankylä. The training objective entails developing the combat tactics and capability of the conscript unit undertaking training as part of the Jaeger Brigade’s force production. The personnel participating in the FTX will be primarily from the Jaeger Brigade and the Kainuu Brigade. The international exercise detachments will be from Norway and the U.S. Apart from personnel, the composition of the exercise detachment from Norway will also include CV90 infantry fighting vehicles. The FTX will be led by Lieutenant Colonel Petri Sipilä from the Jaeger Brigade.
Meanwhile, a national and combined Operations Centre of the C5 systems branch will operate in Riihimäki during the Bold Quest 19.1 event. Focusing on establishing network connections, providing services and monitoring and managing the C5 systems.
The event’s implementation will be led in Finland by Commander of the Finnish Air Force, Major General Pasi Jokinen. The Finnish Army will be responsible for the event’s arrangements relating to logistics, cooperation and operational security in the areas of Sodankylä, Rovajärvi and Riihimäki. During the course of the Bold Quest event, the Finnish Army will conduct research and testing relating to a number of operating branches.
Research and tests for the purpose of developing own operating
As of 2010, the Finnish Army participates in the Bold Quest events organised abroad by having a few persons attend the events with the objective of develeoping the C5 systems. Having the event organised in Finland will now allow the Finnish Army to test factors impacting on overall capability with a high number of participating personnel and by utilising versatile methods cost-effectively.
The objective of the research activities will involve accruing observations benefitting the future development of the Finnish Army’s capabilities, force structures, leading and combined cooperating. The Finnish Army’s participation in this event will significantly serve the development of national defence in the 2020s. The research topics will be as follows:
Common situation picture, data exchange and connectivity of C5 systems
The objective in testing the forming of a common situation picture and the connectivity of C5 systems will entail developing the national C5 system. The testing activities will verify the C5 system’s ability to provide support to forming a situation picture and will identify the development needs on varying command echelon levels. Testing the fielded intelligence systems will allow for developing the functionalities, connectivity, and interoperability and information management of the national systems. Both the research results and knowledge generated will be utilised for the purpose of technological and functional developing of the C5 systems.
Counter-air own identification procedures
Testing counter-air own identification procedures will ensure that counter air sensors identify own and partner aircraft. This will also allow for testing the systems’ connectivity and interoperability as well as inter-system data transfer protocols. The testing objective will involve having the national system become internationally accredited. Flying the testing missions prerequisite for the accreditation in Finland will result in significant cost reductions compared to a combined exercise organised overseas.
Service support and logistics arrangements
Carrying out research on service support and logistics arrangements will accumulate information on the best practices relating to logistics and enable identifying national service support and logistics areas in need of national development. This research will contribute to the Finnish Army’s instructions on how service support and logistics support arrangements need to planned as regards a multinational event.
Staff operating procedures
Research will provide information and experiences on joint cooperating in combined staff compositions. The research objective involves identifying new opportunities as well as development areas relating to Army C3 activities.
Live and virtual environments
Reseach on live and virtual environments will accumulate information and experiences for the Finnish Defence Forces’ simulator and research projects. The experiences accrued will benefit the development of up-to-date training methods utilisable in training service personnel and conscripts.
Links and additional information
This exercise may be observed online at the Finnish Defence Forces’ site and in social media #boldquest
puolustusvoimat.fi/en/boldquest/en
instagram.com/puolustusvoimat.fi
These Finnish Army’s research topics will be discussed in a series of texts to be published online at maavoimat.fi at the turn of May.
