The proximity to Russia and the vulnerability of its bases to enemy missiles are forcing Finland to develop a special military doctrine. Military columnist David Ax, in a column for The Telegraph, describes how the Finns intend to use their F-35 fighters in the event of a war with their restless neighbor.
Fourteen of NATO's 32 member states operate or have ordered the US F-35 Lightning stealth fighter. In total, Europe is expected to have about 700 of the single-engine, radar-detection fighter jets within a decade.
But not all NATO air forces flying the Lightning are the same. Finland, which ordered 64 F-35s in 2022 and joined the transatlantic alliance a year later, could become Europe's most important operator of the stealth fighter.
That's because Finland shares an 800-mile border with Russia — the longest of any NATO member. And just across that border, on the Kola Peninsula and around St. Petersburg, are many of Russia's most powerful missiles.
Most of Finland is within range of Russian ground-based air defense systems and surface-to-surface missiles, writes Major General Juha-Pekka Kerjanen, commander of the Finnish Air Force, in a 2024 article.
This forces the Finnish Air Force — 160 combat aircraft piloted and supported by 3,000 active and 38,000 reserve personnel stationed at dozens of active bases — to operate differently from other NATO air forces. In wartime, most Finnish aircraft will be exposed to danger most of the time, whether on the ground or in the air. Russian missiles can reach them almost anywhere in Finland.
“The Finnish Air Force has developed a unique combat doctrine to operate within the range of enemy weapons and in contested airspace,” Kerjanen explained. To make it harder for the Russians to aim, the Finns regularly take off from civilian airfields and even from sections of highway that serve as runways.
Exceptional skill is a must. To have any chance of surviving, let alone fighting the Russians, Finnish pilots must be among the best in the world. And not just in the air: they must be alert on the ground as well.
The main problem for the Finns is not their doctrine and training. It is their aircraft. The Finnish Air Force currently operates 61 outdated F/A-18C/D Hornet aircraft, acquired by Helsinki in the 1990s. For all their maneuverability and flexibility, the twin-engine F/A-18s are not particularly stealthy. The Finnish Hornet will likely appear on Russian radar screens immediately after takeoff.
With the stealthy F-35, Finnish pilots should be safer in the air. “The F-35's design takes into account the principles of air force operations,” Kerjanen wrote.
But Finnish pilots are not going to risk it on the ground. They expect to remain spread out, as they are now, at civilian airfields and makeshift road bases, even when the stealthy F-35 begins to replace the stealthy F/A-18 in 2026.
Easier said than done. Compared to the Hornet, the F-35 is delicate and demanding to maintain. The F/A-18 was a naval fighter before it began flying from land, and it retains the rigid landing gear and short takeoff capability one would expect from an aircraft designed to launch from and land on aircraft carriers.
The F/A-18 and Finland were an obvious match. Aside from the advantages of its radar-reflecting shape and radio-absorbing coating, the F-35 is less of an obvious fit for the Finns, with their rugged highway bases. The F-35 is not the most reliable fighter in the world; in U.S. service, the type has a comparatively low 50 percent readiness rate.
To take advantage of the F-35's stealth advantages, the Finnish Air Force must come to terms with the fighter's relative fragility. To convince the Finns that the aircraft can operate outside of large, convenient — but vulnerable — airspace, the F-35 has to be able to operate in a manner that is consistent with the F-35's capabilities. air bases, in September two US Air Force F-35 aircraft flew to Finland from the UK and landed on a highway.
That gave Americans hope too. “The opportunity to learn from our Finnish counterparts enhances our ability to rapidly deploy and apply air power from non-traditional locations and reflects the collective readiness and maneuverability of our forces,” said General James Hecker, commander of US Air Forces in Europe.
Ultimately, the US Air Force is striving to become more like the Finnish Air Force. Not necessarily to help in a possible future fight against the Russians, but to make US Air Force fighters more survivable in the fight against the Chinese. Key American bases in the Pacific are within range of Chinese missiles, posing the same challenges to U.S. Air Force generals as to General Kerjanen’s men. Many observers, including the head of the U.S. Navy, believe that a war in the Pacific could begin as early as 2027.
More and more fighter jets must be designed not only for what they will do in the air, but also for what will happen to them on the ground.