Finnish Air Force (FAF) in pictures.

[mustamato]

http://www.oulu.ouka.fi/city/albumi/paraati/paraati908.jpg
Airforce troops on parade with their blue berets and their units flag. The svastika was used
by FAF before the nazis came to power in Germany, it has been used
as a symbol of luck, that´s why it´s still there

F-18 Hornet

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/2137-hn1.jpg

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/2205-hn4.jpg

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/2165-hn9.jpg

http://tietokannat.mil.fi/ilma2002/get2data.php3?id=58

http://tietokannat.mil.fi/ilma2002/get2data.php3?id=53

BAe Hawks

http://www.saunalahti.fi/~fta/IMG0098b.jpg

http://www.saunalahti.fi/~fta/HWpulja2b.jpg

http://www.saunalahti.fi/~fta/IMG0099b.jpg

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/2175-hw5.jpg

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/2171-hw3.jpg

Learjet 35

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/2179-lj1.jpg

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/2183-lj3.jpg

Fokker Troopship

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/2214-galleria_ff4.jpg

Valmet Redigo, Piper Chieftain & Piper Arrow - light transport

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/2119-galleria_rg1.jpg

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/2113-galleria_pc1.jpg

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/2103-galleria_pa1.jpg

Valmet Vinka - basic trainer

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/2129-galleria_vn4.jpg

[Operation Ivy]

woot sexy

[EvanL]

Nice to see some nice canadian planes you guys are making good use of. the learjets that is.
I see you guys also do the same thing as sweden and use your highways for runways.

[mustamato]

I see you guys also do the same thing as sweden and use your highways for runways.

Well, that is one good thing about the Hornet. Since it is designed to be a carrier aircraft it is also suitable to operate from ordinary roads. It´s a must, in case of war with, say Russia, the ruskies would immediately try to bomb the known finnish airbases to rubble. And they would probably succeed with it as well. Using temporary dispersed roadbases simply puts the tiny FAF on a place where the ruskies can´t find them.

Roadbase

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/2207-hn6.jpg

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/2203-hn2.jpg

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/2157-hn5.jpg
Two-seater, F-18D

Finnish Hornets with friends

http://www.fabulousfulcrums.de/Bilder1/fF-18_5.jpg
Over the Baltic sea, photo taken from german MiG-29

http://www.sci.fi/~fta/reds-md.jpg
With Red Arrows over the Gulf of Finland

http://www.sci.fi/~fta/hntank02m.jpg
Refueling over USA (from USAF KC-10 Extender tanker)

Mid-air collision

http://www2.helsinginsanomat.fi/kuvat/uutiset/2001/11/09/20011109oyo2i.jpg
"Lt. Col. Markku Viitala of the Finnish Air Force showed the damaged
Hornet, which was able to land on one engine at its Tampere base. The
other plane involved in the mid-air collision was destroyed and the pilot
ejected to safety."

[Andyman]

What happens when the air refule plane runs out of fuel. Are there other refuel planes flying around? What would happen if the fuel planes became targets would the ariforces capacbilities to refuel in the air be F#$%

I know these questions are kinda redundant but I was just windering if there are other back up plans. Especially that one about the fueler running out of fuel. I mean how much do they have?

[Wacko]

Nice to see some nice canadian planes you guys are making good use of. the learjets that is.
I see you guys also do the same thing as sweden and use your highways for runways.
No. Sweden just used there highways in if it nessesary.

[mustamato]

Nice to see some nice canadian planes you guys are making good use of. the learjets that is.
I see you guys also do the same thing as sweden and use your highways for runways.
No. Sweden just used there highways in if it nessesary.

God damn it, where the hell do you get your wild imagination from? In any case, please stop sharing it. Read my previous post about dispersed roadbases.

______________________________________________________

By the way, how to become a finnish Hornet figher pilot:

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/35-koulutuskaavio.jpg

- Conscript service 9 + 4 months (flying Valmet Vinka 60 hours)
- Becoming a Air Force academy cadet (three years, 160 hours with Hawk)
- Then additional 150 hours with the Hawk during a year out in the units
before 120 flying hours of training on the F-18 during a year.

- Then after a couple of years be a civilian airline pilot and make a lot of $$

More of the non-Hornets:

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/95-kalusto_rg1.jpg
Valmet (finnish company) Redigo, light liason aircraft. Usually to
transport officers on short trips and important documents and such
I guess, can take 3 persons except the pilot. Reportedly very
manouverable (think world war 2 figher plane). Used also by Mexican
and Eritrean (as trainers and recon) Air Force. During
war they would be flying just over the treetops.

http://www.kotiposti.net/banzai/gallery/redigo-1.jpg
Another Redigo with its larger buddy Hornet.

http://www.kotiposti.net/banzai/gallery/vinka-2.jpg
Valmet Vinkas, basic trainers, lined up

http://www.kotiposti.net/banzai/gallery/vinka-3.jpg
In formation as often seen by civilians on the ground.

http://www.kotiposti.net/banzai/gallery/chieftain-1.jpg
Cheiftain, obviously used to fly people (officers and such)

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/89-kalusto_ff1.jpg
Fokker Troopship

http://tietokannat.mil.fi/tj/arkistot/kuvat/2004-01-09-102.jpg
Parachutists inside a Fokker Troopship

http://www2.mil.fi/maavoimat/joukot/utjr/b1.jpg

http://www2.mil.fi/maavoimat/joukot/utjr/a2.jpg
And jumping out of it

[Andyman]

Has anyone here got their jump wings. I will be going for mine in like 2 years is the first time freaking scary or what p-)

[mustamato]

Has anyone here got their jump wings. I will be going for mine in like 2 years is the first time freaking scary or what p-)

I don´t have the wings, but I found a article in a finnish military magazine that I translated to english, it was a about finnish parachutists, in which this picture was taken prior to their first jump

http://tietokannat.mil.fi/tj/arkistot/kuvat/2004-01-09-102.jpg

Here is the article I translated:


With a chute on the back, and with the taste of blood in the mouth

- During the first jump there is a feeling of emptiness. From the loud noice you jump into the emptiness. For a moment you don´t notice anything. One of the best moments are when the chute opens and you can feel that everything is functionin, says parachutists jaegercadet Hannu Hakkarainen. The evening before, the men is in their barracks and is listening to the legendary Europe - The final countdown, and are packing their gear. They are going to their first jump in the dawn, when the winds are optimal. The chance of the jump being called of is minimal.
All of them walk to the airplane in column under silence. When the tires leave the ground the air is filled with the parachutists singing their leaving song.

- It´s a way of getting rid of the tensions. After that you can concentrate on your task. And what you have to do officer cadet Jaako-Pekka Laitala says. Before their first jump the men has already been up in the air with their full gear. And stood their in the opening and looked down. For some of them the tension is so high that they puke. During the flight there is a smell of discomfort in the air.

A taste of blood in the mouth

As the hardest of the training phases the parachutist jaegers often referrs to the jumptraining phase.

- The warmup´s are long. When you have your big rucksack on your back and the chute in its bag at the neck then there is also beginning to be a bloodtaste in the mouth, one of the officer cadets remembers. These warmups are part of physical training, and the men are running, jumping, crouching and pulling themselfes up.

- When you have pulled yourself up 25 times with the rucksack in the heat of the summer, then 30 times are already beginning to feel as much Hannu Hakkarainen says. Also the exercises in pitch black hardens the men. A couple of weeks earlier they walked 50 kilometers during the night in pitch black, and that after a weeks hard combat exercise. It was one of the most physical demanding phases, but now you remember it with pride Hakkarainen says. None of the officer cadets are regretting to serve in the parachutists, Hakkarainen was serving in a borderjaeger unit when he got in to the parachutists, but two months of extra service is of no harm.

"If you give it in once, you will always give up"

Senior Lieutenant Tino Savolainen says, that the hard training is aimed at reinforcing the "sisu" (finnish term that are said to be in the finns soul, kinda like "guts").

- Here we say that if you give it in once, you will always give up. We make those men so mentally hard, that their missions are always completed, no matter what the circumstances, until the end. The officer admits that the unit is a good one for the trainer since the conscripts are extremely motivated. Although they have had their dropouts, atlest once one of them even assigned for civilian duty.

- He applied twice for parachutist traing, before he was approved. There you can possibly see, that some are creating pictures for themselfes of how it´s going to be, that are far from the reality, says Uttis Jaeger regiments spokesperson Pia Enroos.

[usa320]

Well, that is one good thing about the Hornet. Since it is designed to be a carrier aircraft it is also suitable to operate from ordinary roads. It´s a must, in case of war with, say Russia, the ruskies would immediately try to bomb the known finnish airbases to rubble. And they would probably succeed with it as well. Using temporary dispersed roadbases simply puts the tiny FAF on a place where the ruskies can´t find them.



See thats the good thing about America. We have about 22,000 airfields across the country...so the Russians would have their hands full.


What happens when the air refule plane runs out of fuel. Are there other refuel planes flying around? What would happen if the fuel planes became targets would the ariforces capacbilities to refuel in the air be F#$%


Firstly, the tankers are KC-10's and KC-135's- basically modified airliners built to span seas, so they already have a large fuel capacity as is. So they can loiter on station for hours. And yes, they can refuel from other tankers. As for being attacked, its never happened before. The tankers (as well as AWACS and SAR and other supporting assets) are usually kept far away from any airborne or SAM threats, and they are under heavy escort. The new trend though is using smaller planes as tankers. They put a pod under the wing of an F-18 or S-3, this way a seperate refueling package isnt needed.

A normal strike package would be made up of say

4x F-18 strike
2x F-14 escort
1x KC-10 refuel
2x F-15 refuel escort

where as with a buddy refueling pod, all that is needed is

4x F-18 strike (one having a refueling pod)
2x F-14 escort.

Saves planes, money and puts less pilots at risk.

[ExtraT]

The new trend though is using smaller planes as tankers. They put a pod under the wing of an F-18 or S-3, this way a seperate refueling package isnt needed.


Hmmm. Small tankers can refuel only using the "hose+cone" system (or whatever it's called). All the new generation planes use the "boom" refueling method, though. So, I guess this new trend is not going to be around for long...

[Eddie]

Hmmm. Small tankers can refuel only using the "hose+cone" system (or whatever it's called). All the new generation planes use the "boom" refueling method, though. So, I guess this new trend is not going to be around for long...

The "hose+cone" system is called the drogue system. All US Navy, Marine and NATO aircraft use it. The boom system is used by the US Air Force. Both the KC-10 and the KC-135 are capable of using both systems. So my guess is that both systems will continue to be used...

http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/AAR/Small/EC02-0294-4.jpg

[Andyman]

Thanks Mustamato

I appreciate the Answer to my question but I have one more. p-)

What is the "boom" refueling method and if you know this what are other refueling types minus the two mentioned earlier (boom/hose-cone)

[Eddie]

Thanks Mustamato

I appreciate the Answer to my question but I have one more. p-)

What is the "boom" refueling method and if you know this what are other refueling types minus the two mentioned earlier (boom/hose-cone)

http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_refueling

[Uninen]

BAe Hawks

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/2171-hw3.jpg

Hawk Mk.51 Firing a R-60 short range AAM.. (AA-8 Aphid..)

FAF Hawks are the only ones to be able to do this..

To fire russian AAMs.

But this thing is now in the past..

As FAF has given up from using the Hawks as point defence fighters and as fighter bombers, and now their duty is solely to funtion as advanced trainers.

woot

[Marmot1]

Hehe we use the same method of using roads as a airstrips but in poland it is specially prepared part of road called (DOL-something like Road Airstrip Section) It is flat and straight for about 1,5km also there are parking spots on the sides, road is little wider in this area and trees are little farther from the road, and digged in fuel tanks are in the nerby forest (empty in peacetime). Sometimes there is also other infrastructure but it is clasified. Usualy DOL is for 2-4 aircrafts but some of themare for even 12 (you know the capacity is only limited by imagnation of ppl) This tactic in poland is used since 60's or maybe longer.

I know that US and Swedish pilots practiced landing on this and that US refused to land on in becouse it was too narrow and trees were to close to wingtips but after poles landed and then sweedes also US pilots landed...

Info in english:
http://www.***********/English/Events/DOL2003.htm

Here is info in polish but there are photos of swedish pilots and planes on polish DOL in 2001
http://www.czasopismawlop.mil.pl/wiraze/w_numerzew/archiwumw/12-2001/auto.htm
Other photos from DOL (also swedish planes)
http://www.czasopismawlop.mil.pl/wiraze/w_numerzew/archiwumw/10-2001/karat4.htm

Some photos from DOL landing exercise this year....

http://www.czasopismawlop.mil.pl/wiraze/w_numerzew/archiwumw/12-2003/dolb10.jpg
http://www.czasopismawlop.mil.pl/wiraze/w_numerzew/archiwumw/12-2003/dolb01.jpg
http://www.czasopismawlop.mil.pl/wiraze/w_numerzew/archiwumw/12-2003/dolb02.jpg
http://www.czasopismawlop.mil.pl/wiraze/w_numerzew/archiwumw/12-2003/dolb03.jpg
http://www.czasopismawlop.mil.pl/wiraze/w_numerzew/archiwumw/12-2003/dolb04.jpg
http://www.czasopismawlop.mil.pl/wiraze/w_numerzew/archiwumw/12-2003/dolb05.jpg
http://www.czasopismawlop.mil.pl/wiraze/w_numerzew/archiwumw/12-2003/dolb06.jpg
http://www.czasopismawlop.mil.pl/wiraze/w_numerzew/archiwumw/12-2003/dolb07.jpg
http://www.czasopismawlop.mil.pl/wiraze/w_numerzew/archiwumw/12-2003/dolb08.jpg
http://www.czasopismawlop.mil.pl/wiraze/w_numerzew/archiwumw/12-2003/dolb09.jpg
http://www.czasopismawlop.mil.pl/wiraze/w_numerzew/archiwumw/12-2003/dolb11.jpg
http://www.czasopismawlop.mil.pl/wiraze/w_numerzew/archiwumw/12-2003/dolb12.jpg
http://www.czasopismawlop.mil.pl/wiraze/w_numerzew/archiwumw/12-2003/dolb13.jpg
http://www.czasopismawlop.mil.pl/wiraze/w_numerzew/archiwumw/12-2003/dolb14.jpg
http://www.czasopismawlop.mil.pl/wiraze/w_numerzew/archiwumw/12-2003/dolb15.jpg
http://www.czasopismawlop.mil.pl/wiraze/w_numerzew/archiwumw/12-2003/dolb16.jpg

And SWEDISH highway.. (DOL)



http://www.greendevils.pl/technika_wojskowa/lotnictwo/gripen_vs_f16/Gripen9.jpg
http://www.greendevils.pl/technika_wojskowa/lotnictwo/gripen_vs_f16/Gripen5.jpg

[perdurabo]

Swedish "DOL" are shorter than polish (Kilińska 1,5KM swedish about 900m) but are litle bit wider (Kilińska 5m and swedish 6m) and on polish DOL there are usually fuel tanks hidden somwhere near.
Kilińska is used for excercizes other are clasified.

[mustamato]

BAe Hawks

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/2171-hw3.jpg

Hawk Mk.51 Firing a R-60 short range AAM.. (AA-8 Aphid..)

FAF Hawks are the only ones to be able to do this..

To fire russian AAMs.

But this thing is now in the past..

As FAF has given up from using the Hawks as point defence fighters and as fighter bombers, and now their duty is solely to funtion as advanced trainers.

woot

But I assume that they still have the capabilites to fire missiles, and that the pilots that are going to be Hornet pilots train to fire missiles with the Hawk? Read however that the Hawks will be scrapped in about 10 years, and that there will be no new advanced trainers bought (because the training would all take place abroad) :|

Another one with missile, is this a Sidewinder or a russian AA-8?

http://www.ilmavoimat.fi/filebank/2175-hw5.jpg

[tony6]

AFAIK in Europe only Scandinavian countries and Poland use this tactics.
By the way - there were also transport An-26 planes landing on the DOL few years ago (!)
:)

[mustamato]

Here are some finnish Air Force-affiliated videos. Don´t worry about the size of the videoclips,
the mil.fi-server is really fast. They talk a lot of finnish but visually it might be interesting if
you have fast Internet. It´s from the exercise Ilma 2002. At the most, 12,500 persons, 70
aircraft and over 800 vehicles participated in the exercise.

http://tietokannat.mil.fi/ilma2002/images/film_joukkoja.gif
http://tietokannat.mil.fi/ilma2002/videot/joukkoja.mpg
49 MB, 3:31 minutes. Hornets protecting Helsinki and
troops on the ground from enemy Air Force

http://tietokannat.mil.fi/ilma2002/images/film_maahanlasku.gif
http://tietokannat.mil.fi/ilma2002/videot/maahanlasku.mpg
77 MB, 5:35 minutes. Hornets protecting helicopters and troops.

http://tietokannat.mil.fi/ilma2002/images/film_lusi.gif
http://tietokannat.mil.fi/ilma2002/videot/lusi.mpg
67.6 MB, 5.09 minutes. From one of these DOL´s.

http://tietokannat.mil.fi/ilma2002/images/film_vaijerilasku.gif
http://tietokannat.mil.fi/ilma2002/videot/vaijerilasku.mpg
27 MB, 2:01 minutes. Using the arresting hook.

http://tietokannat.mil.fi/ilma2002/images/film_tunnistuslento.gif
http://tietokannat.mil.fi/ilma2002/videot/tiedustelulento.mpg
40.9 MB, 3:07 minutes. A Fokker filled with journalists
is checked up by a Hornet.

And here is a bonusmovie, not about FAF but anyway:

http://tietokannat.mil.fi/ilma2002/images/film_rannikkojaak.gif
http://tietokannat.mil.fi/ilma2002/videot/rannikkojaakarit.mpg
39.0 MB, 2:58 minutes. Coastal Jaegers from the navys Nylands
brigade makes a landing on a island(?) with Jurmo boats. In the end of
the movie with the mortar, the spoken language is a kind of bizarre mix
between swedish and finnish,since the brigades spoken language is
swedish but all the commands are given in finnish.

http://tietokannat.mil.fi/ilma2002/images/film_panssari.gif
http://tietokannat.mil.fi/ilma2002/videot/panssari.mpg
36 MB, 2:44 minutes. Just some armoured units on a display.

[LJK]

Here is little more paratrooper pics. If someone want to see.
http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Finland/heko.jpg
http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Finland/valm.jpg
http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Finland/mene.jpg
http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Finland/talvi.jpg
http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Finland/rhyppy.jpg
http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Finland/snowjump.jpg

[Uninen]

mustamato,

That was a AIM-9 Sidewinder..

LJK,

Utti jaeger regiment is army unit..

:lol: