The Finnish Defence Forces are to start recruiting and training volunteers for special forces to be used in demanding military operations at home and abroad. The new training programme is to be launched next year.
The core of the force is likely to comprise professional fighters to be recruited for enlistment periods of five years.
The training is to be held in Utti in the southeast of Finland.
The plans were outlined to journalists at Utti on Tuesday.
For the past five years Utti has been training contract soldiers for special duties. However, they are only semi-professionals, getting no more than a year of special training after completing their national service.
In the new system there are to be three separate degrees of special forces.
Paratroopers are to be trained in connection with national service lasting one year as is the case now. They are to be used only for defence missions within Finland.
The second degree comprises contract soldiers of the kind that are already being trained in Utti. Those who have achieved an officer’s, or non-commissioned officer’s rank as a conscript will be allowed to apply for the special training.
Their period of service is to be extended from the present 12 months to 14.
The contract soldiers would receive training aimed at special forces activities, but abroad they could be used only for conventional crisis management operations.
The third degree would comprise professional soldiers to be trained for special infantry duties. They would be recruited from amongst the contract soldiers trained at Utti.
They would enlist for five years at a time, and would be trained for challenging special military action in Finland, as well as for demanding international crisis management missions.
Typical operations for the special forces would involve surveillance missions, as well as special operations to free hostages, for instance.
The training largely corresponds with the "force protection" tasks that Finland has been offered in the planned EU battle group that Finland might set up with Germany and The Netherlands.
The rapid deployment force should be ready for action in 2007. Lieutenant-Colonel Petri Hulkko said that the Finnish unit would be ready for crisis management duties from 2008.
The Finnish Defence Forces will not say how many soldiers the special force will contain. The names of the recruits are not to be disclosed, and no interviews will be allowed.
Journalists were allowed to photograph the present contract soldiers who put on a display of their skills on Tuesday.
