Finnish military ranks


The military ranks of Finland are the military insignia used by the Finnish Defence Forces. The ranks incorporate features from the Swedish, German, and Russian armed forces. In addition, the system has some typically Finnish characteristics that are mostly due to the personnel structure of the Finnish Defence Forces. The ranks have official names in Finnish and Swedish languages and official English translations. The Swedish forms are used in all Swedish-language communications in Finland, e.g. in Swedish-speaking units of the Finnish Defence Force. The system of ranks in the Swedish Armed Forces is slightly different.
Finland practices universal conscription of men, and maintains only a cadre of paid personnel for training and maintaining military readiness. Most of the lower ranks are conscripts, and leave service as sotamies or korpraali. Junior leaders, about 20% of age cohort, serve 12 months and leave service as alikersantti or kersantti. 10% of conscripts are trained as reserve officers, serving 12 months, and leave service usually as vänrikki or in the Navy as aliluutnantti. In principle, there should be no distinction between reserve and active ranks, and NCOs and reserve officers can be promoted in reserve, up to everstiluutnantti. During peace time, reservists are inactive, i.e. they do not receive pay or have a position in the chain of command. Reservists are in duty only when mobilized during a crisis or when attending mandatory or voluntary refresher exercises. Nevertheless, reserve NCO or officer ranks are an entrance requirement to a military or border guard career.
Rank and file and non-commissioned officers are promoted to their ranks by the commander of a brigade or equivalent, with the exception of the highest NCO ranks of ylivääpeli and sotilasmestari, who are promoted by the service commander and Chief of Staff of the Defence Command, respectively. All officers from vänrikki and higher are promoted to their ranks and commissioned to their offices by the President of Finland. Professional officers are trained at the Finnish National Defence University. Career officers graduate first as sotatieteen kandidaatti, with an automatic promotion to luutnantti, then work for 3–4 years' work as temporary officers. After this, they continue their studies to sotatieteen maisteri and are promoted to yliluutnantti. After graduation, they are promoted to kapteeni and receive a commission to a permanent office.

Table of ranks

The ranks currently used by the Finnish Defence Forces.

Commissioned officer ranks

The rank insignia of commissioned officers.

Other ranks

The rank insignia of non-commissioned officers and enlisted personnel.

Conscript ranks during compulsory national service

The rank insignia of the conscripts during compulsory national service. During the service period these are junior to all career personnel.

Ranks of the Cadets of the National Defence University

Cadets of the National Defence university have their own rank, senior to vänrikki, and in addition are distinguished between each other by the class year seniority, and also internal ranks given from success in studies and general leadership qualities. All of the cadets share the same collar insignia, but the epaulettes or the field uniform insignia reflect the class year seniority and internal rank.

Personnel groups

The military personnel of the Finnish Defence Forces is divided into three groups:
  • command personnel
  • junior command personnel
  • rank and file
The rank-and-file consists of personnel with the rank of sotamies or korpraali; personnel which haven't completed NCO training during their conscript service may be promoted up to NCO ranks of alikersantti or kersantti in the reserves, and their status changes accordingly; further promotions past kersantti aren't possible. Soldiers in the rank of a private always have a branch or service specific title such as tykkimies "gunner" or matruusi, "seaman"; the non-specific rank of sotamies is no longer in use. The NCO students rank as privates until they are promoted to the rank of Corporal.
The junior command personnel are formed from the professional or reserve NCOs and conscripts serving in ranks of corporal, officer student, sergeant or officer candidate or their naval equivalents. However, by regulation, all professional servicemen outrank conscripts.
The command personnel is formed of commissioned officers, commissioned officer specialists, warrant officers and cadets.
Reservists belong to the personnel group determined by their military rank, but hold the position in the chain of command only from the moment they report to duty to the moment they have been discharged and have left the military installation. Unlike conscripts, the reservists rank with the professional military personnel without prejudice. The highest rank available to reserve officers is lieutenant colonel, but it is only awarded for special service or accomplishments.

Insignia

The insignia is different from other European systems by some features. Stars are not used in the insignia. Heraldic roses, instead of oak leaves, denote ranks from second lieutenant to colonel. Generals wear lions, not stars. The qualifiers yli "Senior" and ali "Junior" are used in the names of some ranks; for example, kersantti is "Sergeant", while alikersantti is "Junior Sergeant".
In the army the insignia are placed on the collar in parade and service uniforms M/58 and M/83 and in field uniforms M/62 and M/91. The Air Force places the insignia on the sleeve of M/51 instead of the collar. In the Navy where they have different parade dress they place the ranks on the sleeve and they also have the M/83 insignia on the shoulders. If the insignia are placed on the arm or on the sleeve, sleeve insignia are used. Sleeve insignia consists of parallel gold bars or chevrons. On the modern field uniform M/05, the rank insignia are placed on the chest. The colours of the background and the lining on the Army and Air Force collar patches indicate branch of specialization. In field uniforms, the collar patches do not carry branch colours, borders or corner accents. The national flag and the serviceman's unit insignia on a coloured background determined by branch are carried on the arm on field uniforms M/91 and M/05. However, conscripts typically only wear the Finnish flag and their rank insignia on their uniforms while not on leave. In the table above, the army insignia for ranks from Private to Major are depicted on infantry collar patches, with the exception of Officer Student, which features Reserve Officer School collar patches. General officers' collar patches are most often gold on red, because red is the colour of Defence Command (Finland). However, generals serving as unit commanders or on special tasks retain the colours of their unit's branch.
In the Navy uniform, officers and Warrant officers wear the Lion of Finland on the top of their insignia, while Non-commissioned officers use the special insignia of their duty branch. In field uniforms, these emblems are dropped. Specialist officers always wear their specialist insignia in addition to their rank insignia on the collar patches. On sleeve and shoulder insignia, the specialty is denoted by coloured insignia background.
NCO students do not wear any collar insignia. Their sole rank insignia consists of a silver line worn on the shoulder or arm of all uniforms, except in M/05 where the silver line is worn on the chest.

Exceptions

General officers

The ranks of field marshal and Marshal of Finland were bestowed on Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim in 1933 and 1942, respectively. These are officially not military ranks but honorific titles, but were used like military ranks senior to the rank of general. The insignia used was a general's insignia with crossed marshal's batons.
The Finnish Field Marshal grade would be the equivalent to the NATO OF-10 rank.
All generals from brigadier general to general are addressed as "Sir/Ma'am General", and similarly for admirals.

Historical honorary titles

The rank of general may, as a sign of special recognition, include a service branch: those historically used were general of infantry, general of cavalry and general of artillery. These additions do not affect seniority. There are no living general officers with such recognition, the last one being General of Infantry Adolf Ehrnrooth.
Personnel who fought in the Finnish Jaegers of the German Army during World War I are often referred to as such, e.g. jääkärieversti "Jaeger colonel".

Military civil servants and specialist officers

Personnel serving in technical duties that hasn't completed any leadership training holds the position of Specialist at a class equal to their civilian education level. Their rank is equivalent to Staff Sergeant, Lieutenant or First Lieutenant. Typical specialties include engineering, medicine and interpreters hired for UN peace keeping missions abroad. Military civil servants are rather rare as their position is likely to be filled by specialist officers i.e. personnel that has completed leadership training, has been commissioned and has the required civilian academic degree for the position.
Reservists may be promoted up to the rank of major both in special and normal officer ranks, if they show extraordinary commitment to national defence. In rare cases, reservists have been promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Chaplains serve in the ranks of chaplain, senior chaplain, and field bishop, corresponding to the ranks of captain, lieutenant colonel, and brigadier general, respectively. In addition, they have a personal rank into which they revert at the end of their clerical service in the Finnish Defence Force. Conscript chaplains and deacons serve in their personal rank.

Officer training

Conscripts who have passed the reserve officer course serve as officer candidates at a rank equivalent to conscript sergeants but senior to them and below any career personnel. They are addressed rouva/herra kokelas or rouva/herra upseerikokelas. At the end of their conscript, they are promoted to second lieutenants or sub-lieutenants.
Cadets are students at the National Defence University who have previously completed their reserve officer course during their military service and been admitted to the Bachelor's program in military science towards an officer career. Cadets are senior to second lieutenants. In addition, the cadets may hold a cadet NCO rank indicating their seniority within the Cadet Corps.

NCO ranks

The NCO ranks in the Finnish Defence Force are filled by conscripts, career NCOs and contractual military personnel at ranks from corporal to sergeant-major. Nowadays, career NCO sergeants wear a heraldic sword under their chevrons to distinguish them from conscript and contractual sergeants.
The contractual military personnel usually serves in their reserve ranks. Until 2007, reserve officers served in the rank of staff sergeant. This practice has now been abolished and nowadays reserve officers use their reserve rank. After discharge from the military, both career NCOs and contractual military personnel revert to their personal reserve ranks. The conscripts may hold the NCO rank of officer cadet, sergeant, officer student, or corporal. Reserve personnel may hold any NCO rank.

Special roles within units

There are some positions, which resemble military ranks in their name, but are not. The position of the company first sergeant is called komppanian vääpeli "company sergeant first class". In past times it was the position of the unit's most senior career NCO, but nowadays the post is held often by someone from sergeant up to senior lieutenant in training units, or by a conscript NCO in mobilized units. Another example is komendantti, which is not a rank but a security/executive officer position in a brigade. While the rank of komentaja is found in the navy, in general use it refers to a commander of a battalion or a larger unit.

Career rank and file personnel

The rank of sotilasammattihenkilö "military professional" is reserved for non-combat trained professionals serving within the FDF in non-leadership roles such as those of social media assistant, photographer, or truck driver. Their rank insignia is a single heraldic sword and they rank above conscripts and below all other paid personnel.

Privates

Sotamies is the generic rank for private, however the rank of sotamies, as such, is no longer used in any service branch. The rank is always given the name specific to the service branch:
  • Jaeger in the infantry
  • Signalman in the signals corps
  • Armourman in tank units
  • Armoured Jaeger in mechanized infantry
  • Driver in the transport corps
  • Gunner in the anti-aircraft corps, field artillery and coastal units of the navy
  • Missileman in anti-aircraft surface-to-air missile units such as Helsinki Air Defence Regiment
  • NBC private in NBC defence units
  • Engineer in the engineers
  • Airman in the air force
  • Seaman in the navy
  • Coastal jaeger in certain units of the Nyland Brigade
  • Dragoon in the Dragoon Squadron of Army Warfare School - This squadron was disbanded in December 2016
  • Cavalryman in the Häme Regiment – This regiment was disbanded in December 2014.
  • Guard jaeger in Guard Jaeger Regiment
  • Border jaeger in the border guards, senior border guard, border guard sergeant and border guard master sergeant
Roughly 10 percent of all privates are promoted to the rank of lance corporal during their service. In comparison, non-commissioned officer students hold either the permanent rank of private or lance corporal and rank accordingly. The rank of alokas is used to denote privates in basic training. The recruit, alokas is a new private, who has not been trained enough to have given a military oath or military guarantee. After giving an oath or such guarantee, the private soldier is no longer called alokas but will be promoted to their private-level military rank corresponding to their service branch, e.g. tykkimies.
Paratroop jaeger and Special jaeger in Utti Jaeger Regiment and Special border jaeger in Special Border Jaeger Company of Border and Coast Guard School are not ranks, but specializations, where NCO training is given and thus each graduate is at minimum alikersantti.
Historically, the rank of sotamies was used in generic infantry units, while the rank of jaeger was used in specific jaeger battalions, which derived their traditions from the Jäger Movement.