Finnish Navy


The Finnish Navy is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. The navy employs 2,300 people and about 4,300 conscripts are trained each year. Finnish Navy vessels are given the ship prefix "FNS", short for "Finnish Navy ship", but this is not used in Finnish-language contexts. The Finnish Navy also includes coastal forces and coastal artillery.

Organization

The current Commander of the Navy is rear admiral Tuomas Tiilikainen. The navy is organized into the Navy Command, three Brigade-level units, and the Naval Academy. Since 1998 the navy also includes the Nyland Brigade in Dragsvik, where Finnish Marines or Coastal Jaegers are trained. The Nyland Brigade is also the only Swedish-language unit in the country and it carries on the traditions and battle-honours of the Nyland Regiment of the Swedish Army.

Locations

  • Navy Command headquarters:
  • Naval depot: Pansio and Kimito

    Bases

  • Coastal Brigade:
  • Coastal Fleet:
  • * Commander
  • * Headquarters
  • * 4th Mine Countermeasures Squadron
  • ** MHCs Katanpää, Purunpää and Vahterpää
  • ** Home Defence Troops' Mine Sweeping Group Sääksi
  • * 6th Surface Warfare Squadron
  • ** 2nd Mine Unit
  • ** 2nd Missile Unit
  • * 7th Surface Warfare Squadron
  • ** MLC Hämeenmaa
  • ** 1st Missile Unit
  • ** 1st Mine Unit
  • * 8th Service Support Squadron
  • ** 1st Transport Unit
  • ** 2nd Transport Unit
  • ** Support Company
  • ** Home Defence Troops' Protection Company
  • Nyland Brigade:
  • Naval Academy:

    Mobilization strength

Total of 31,500 personnel

History

During the Swedish era, the Finnish Gulf saw many battles between the Swedish and Russian fleets. Many of the Swedish naval bases were located in present-day Finland and many sailors came from Finland.
Image:Naval Jack of Finland.svg|right|thumb|Finnish Naval Jack
During the Russian rule an entirely Finnish Navy unit, named Suomen Meriekipaasi was
defending the Finnish coast, alongside the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy. The Meriekipaasi participated in the Crimean War, albeit mostly with on-shore duties. The Meriekipaasi also manned the coastal batteries at the Santahamina Island during the Siege of Sveaborg in Helsinki. The ships the Meriekipaasi operated included the steam frigates and Kalevala, named after the Finnish national epic. These ships later served in the Russian Pacific Fleet.

Independent Finland

The first ships that the independent Finnish Navy obtained were a mix of obsolete vessels left behind by the Russians during the Finnish Civil War and vessels that had not been able to make the winter voyage to Kronstadt as the Russian Navy retreated from German forces. Thus, the Finnish Navy of the late 1910s and early 1920s consisted of a few gunboats, six S-class torpedo boats, eight C-class torpedo boats, one minelayer, several minesweepers, and five T-class minelaying boats. In addition to the warships, the Russians also left behind numerous other types of vessels.
Additionally, the Germans handed over two netlayers to the Finnish Navy, and these two ships formed the core of the Finnish Navy until the coastal defence ships were commissioned. With the Treaty of Tartu, Finland had to return some of the equipment they had operated earlier. This equipment included three S-class torpedo boats, the minesweepers Altair, Mikula, MP 7, MP 11, Ahvola, T 12, fifteen tugs, four smaller transports and 54 motorboats. Finland lost three more ships in supporting the British campaign in the Baltic Sea. The three vessels remained in the Baltic even when winter froze over the sea, and the expanding ice damaged the vessels beyond repair, and they were all scuttled. The last remaining C-class torpedo boats were placed in reserve after this incident.
In 1927, after years of wrangling with various plans for how to modernize the navy, and partly due to the loss of the torpedo boat S2 in heavy seas in October 1925, the Parliament of Finland approved a plan to build two coastal defence ships, as well as four submarines. Motor torpedo boats were also acquired both from Britain, as well as from domestic sources. New minesweepers were also constructed. The training ship was also acquired.

World War II

The strength of the Finnish Navy at the beginning of World War II was limited. Some of the planned ships had not yet been constructed and wartime constraints on the economy prolonged ship building times.
The Finnish Navy operated the following vessels in the Baltic Sea:
  • Two coastal defence ships
  • Five submarines
  • Four gunboats
  • Seven motor torpedo boats
  • One minelayer
  • Eight minesweepers
  • One training ship
On Lake Ladoga, the Finns operated:
  • One icebreaker
  • One gunboat
  • One minelayer
  • One tug
  • Two motor boats
The navy also had several auxiliary warships, icebreakers and patrol boats from the coast guard.
Image:Väinämöinen 1938.jpg|thumb|250px|Coastal defence ship Väinämöinen in 1938

Winter War

When the Winter War broke out the Finnish Navy moved to occupy the de-militarized Åland Islands and to protect merchant shipping. In the first month of the war, battles between Soviet ships and Finnish coastal batteries were fought at Hanko, Finland, Utö and Koivisto. At Koivisto and Hanko, the batteries forced Soviet battleships to retire with damage. Finnish efforts to use submarines to sink Soviet capital ships failed. In December 1939 the ice became so thick that only the icebreakers could still move. The two coastal defence ships were moved to the harbour in Turku where they were used to strengthen the air defences of the city. They remained there for the rest of the war.

Continuation War

Before the Continuation War five more torpedo boats were ordered from Italy. The base that the Soviets had acquired after the Winter War at the Hanko Peninsula divided the areas where the Finnish Navy would operate in two. This included the coastal artillery positions at Russarö and Osmussaar, which guarded the minefields blocking the entrance to the Eastern Gulf of Finland. Large mine fields were laid down in cooperation with the German Kriegsmarine when the war began. The coastal defence ships bombarded the Soviet base at Hanko until the Soviets evacuated Hanko in December 1941.
Between 1941 and 1945 some 69,779 mines and mine sweeping obstacles were laid in the Gulf of Finland by Finnish, Soviet and German naval forces. The Soviet Navy laid 16,179 mines and 2,441 mine sweeping obstacles, the Finnish navy 6,382 mines, and the German navy's vessels, submarines and aircraft laid some 45,000 mines, of which 3,000 were magnetic mines. The last mine sweeping season was held in 1957, but the mine danger continued for some 10 more years, and there are still hundreds of World War II-era mines in the Baltic Sea. The greatest loss of the Finnish Navy occurred on 13 September 1941 when ran into a mine and sank. 271 sailors died and only 132 were rescued. Most of the survivors later served in the Lake Onega flotilla, using old captured ships, including a steam-engined paddlewheeler.
In 1942 the main focus of the war at sea was on anti-submarine warfare. Finnish and German naval forces tried to prevent Soviet submarines from gaining access to the Baltic Sea. However, the mine barrier had proven to be insufficient to completely stop Soviet submarines activities. The Soviet subs sank 18 ships, seven of which were Finnish. 12 Soviet submarines were also sunk - three by Finnish submarines. The next step in submarine warfare was to completely block the Gulf of Finland with anti-submarine nets between Naissaar and Porkkala. This was done immediately after the ice cover melted on the sea. That barrier with its accompanying minefields effectively contained Soviet Naval vessels to the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland until the autumn of 1944, when the Soviets were able to use Finnish coastal seaways to circumvent the barrier.
In spring 1942 Finnish forces captured the island of Gogland. In July 1942 the Soviets made an attempt to occupy the small island of Sommers in the Gulf of Finland. The Soviets lost several smaller vessels together with 128 men. One-hundred and two Soviet soldiers were taken prisoner. During 1943 the navy received 14 new motor torpedo boats which were used to replace the old pre-war ones.
In 1944 the Soviets launched a major offensive against Finland, during which the navy fought in support of Finnish land forces the Gulf of Vyborg. In the end the ships were forced to pull out.
Image:Finnish submarines.jpg|thumb|Finnish s

Lapland War

In September 1944, the military operations against Germany started. The main focus was in the north, the Lapland War, but the Germans also tried to capture Suursaari in an operation named Tanne Ost. The attack was repulsed. During the battle, Finnish motor torpedo boats sank several German vessels.
The last action of the Finnish Navy was during the amphibious landing of troops from Oulu in Tornio. The Finnish gunboats successfully shelled German batteries, which had posed serious threat for the transport ships, while their anti-aircraft batteries defended the convoy from German air attacks. The navy also hunted German U-boats in the Baltic, laying its last mines of the war while doing this.
After the Finnish-Soviet armistice, the Finnish Navy was ordered to participate in the demanding mine clearance operation. The operation lasted until 1950. There were many casualties among the clearance crews.

The Cold War era

The war time fleet was replaced in the 1950s and 1960s. Due to Finland's neutrality she tried to balance her purchases of equipment between the two blocs and also tried to produce its own vessels. A for training purposes, two fast patrol boats and four s were bought from the UK, two s and four Osa II-class fast attack craft were obtained from the Soviet Union. Some of the vessels, such as two s and the Nuoli-class fast attack craft were produced domestically.
The Paris peace talks in 1947 resulted in a treaty that limited the offensive capability of the Finnish military. For the navy, this meant a limitation to a fleet of no more than 10,000 tons and 4,500 personnel. As for the weaponry, torpedoes, submarines, mines and missiles were forbidden. The restrictions were eased in the 1960s and missiles and mines were allowed. The torpedo restriction was not either fully exercised as the Riga-class frigates were equipped with torpedoes and a number of torpedo boats were manufactured as gunboats that could quickly be converted to carry torpedoes. Torpedoes were re-introduced in 2018.
The Cold War limitations are no longer in place, but the size of the navy has still remained roughly the same size.