Finland Times

 

Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen. Photo – Lehtikuva.

A nationwide debate about Finnish defence capability got more fodder over the weekend.

    

A report by regional newspaper Savon Sanomat said Air Force Hornet F18s had, in fact, not taken off to identify two Russian cargo planes that had entered the Finnish air space on May 20, after deviating from their air corridor in the Gulf of Finland.

    

According to the article, the Hornets had been up in the air but when a third plane had approached Finnish airspace hours later, but it had turned away before crossing the frontier.

    

Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen initially noted in a statement that the violators had been met by the Hornets. The Finnish military said on Sunday the planes had been indeed identified but not by sending jet fighters to intercept them.

    

As the news broke on Saturday, President Sauli Niinistö  -- who is also the commander-in-chief of the Finnish defense forces -- told national public television (YLE) that preparedness should be maintained at all times.

    

It was reported that the reason the Hornets were not deployed because recent maneuvers meant pilots had worked overtime. The military dismissed the grounds, however.

    

Russia uses a narrow air corridor in the Gulf of Finland for their flights to the Kaliningrad enclave. In a earlier comment by the Finnish Border Guards, the possibility of an error by Russian pilots was taken into account. The Gulf of Finland separates Finland and Estonia.

    

The latest incident comes a year after the Finnish media was critical in the wake of Swedish interceptors not reacting when Russian jets simulated sorties towards Sweden during Easter 2013.

    

The deputy chairman of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee Pertti Salolainen. Photo – Lehtikuva.

At that time, a NATO plane took off from Latvia.

    

Finnish media noted on Monday that the Finnish Air Force had now been caught in a similar situation.

    

What has been seen as a lack of information has been met with anger in parliament. The deputy chairman of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee Pertti Salolainen demanded answers from Defense Minister Carl Haglund. The committee had been given a detailed report about the border violations without any mention of the Hornets.

    

Haglund told the media that it would not be practicable to keep jet fighters airborne continuously. That would be necessary should any violations be met through identification by a jet fighter.

    

The Air Force said they would investigate the origin of the news as "secret information" had been used. The newspaper Savon Sanomat said they had checked their sources. The newspaper is published in Kuopio, where one of the largest air bases in Finland is located.

    

Finland purchased several dozen F18 Hornets from the United States over 20 years ago.