ADEX Fighters Target Lohtaja Firing Range

Concurrent with the ongoing ADEX-05 air defense exercise, the Helsinki Air Defense Regiment has arranged an anti-aircraft training camp in Lohtaja in the Ostrobothnia region. As part of inter-service cooperation, some ADEX missions are directed towards the firing range there.

The BUK system can engage fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and cruise missiles, among other targets.

“A number of fighters will be tasked to target an area heavily defended by ground-based air defense units in Lohtaja,” Lieutenant-Colonel Juha-Pekka Pystynen, Chief of Staff of Satakunta Air Command, told us.

“The GBAD units train with the objective of shooting down attacking fighters.”

These events are not preplanned. Defenders that take off from Kauhava attempt to engage Pirkkala-based attackers, and if these attempts are successful, no attacks against GBAD protected targets will take place.

“On approaching a target area an attacker conducts violent evasive maneuvers – but I believe the GBAD units can handle it,” Lieutenant-Colonel Pystynen believed.

During strikes against the Lohtaja range fighter pilots have a chance to practice simulated air-to-ground attacks. Attacking fighters do not have the specific role of target formations; instead, both pilots and GBAD units try to succeed in their respective tasks.

The Capabilities of the Entire Finnish GBAD System Are Being Assessed

Troops from all Finnish Defense Forces units that provide GBAD training, together with one Navy detachment, have been deployed to the Lohtaja anti-aircraft training camp.

“All our weapon systems and every radar type of ours are represented here,” Colonel Heikki Bergqvist, Inspector of Ground-Based Air Defense and commander of the camp, told.

“We are testing the performance of our GBAD system. This time this is a pretty big thing. On the basis of an analysis of the engagements conducted during this camp we will able to really see how things would have turned out in each situation and where there remains room for improvement,” Bergqvist states.

Surface-to-air missile systems and platforms such as the BUK (Finnish designation ItO 96), Crotale (ItO 90), Mistral (ItO 91), Marksman anti-aircraft tank (ItPsv 90) guard the skies, supplemented by anti-aircraft guns and machine guns. Crews of the Navy’s fast attack missile vessels also train in the use of anti-aircraft weapons. The most recent SAM system, the Asrad-r (ItO 2005) is not yet operational so it is not seen in Lohtaja.

According to Bergqvist’s estimate, between 1,300 and 1,400 persons take part in the exercise.

“Strikes by ADEX aircraft are expected only during the so-called main waves when dozens of aircraft are airborne simultaneously. For this reason, other air activities are also conducted for the benefit of the anti-aircraft camp,” Pystynen explained.

These are the responsibility of the Supporting Air Operations Squadron of the Air Force Academy, Training Squadron of the Training Air Wing, Helicopter Battalion of the Utti Jaeger Regiment, and a squad that operates the Army’s unmanned target aircraft. Aircraft of the Air Force Academy and Training Air Wing trail a target sleeve that is fired at by the GBAD units. An unmanned target aircraft is a small uninhabited aerial vehicle that the anti-aircraft gunners try to hit.