Distributed Operations, Exercises and Building Out Finnish Defense Capabilities: The Perspective of Lt. General Kim Jäämeri

03/02/2018

2018-02-17 By Robbin Laird

Helsinki, Finland

My last official interview in Finland was with the former head of the Finnish Air Force and now Deputy Chief of Staff, Strategy for the Finnish Defence Forces, Lt. General Kim Jäämeri.

In my discussions in Helsinki, I was increasingly persuaded that a number of core foundational elements in the Finnish approach were very symmetrical with the changes unfolding in 21st century military technology and changes in approach which most liberal democracies needed to make as we shift from the land wars to higher tempo operations.

The mobilization focus of Finland which I discussed with Jukka Juusti, Permanent Secretary Defence, was one aspect.

The other which I discussed with Lt. General Jäämeri was distributed ops.

Lt. General Kim Jäämeri, Former Head of the Finnish Air Force and Currently Deputy Chief of Staff, Strategy

Clearly, a number of key aspects of military technological change are underscoring greater capabilities for force generation in terms of distributed operations and shaping C2 systems which can support mission command approaches to directing a distributed force are part of significant change going on in the U.S. military as well as other allied militaries.

But for the Finns, distributed operations is in their defense DNA. 

They have been living under the threat of missile and air strikes for a long time and have never assumed that you operate from fixed bases alone as crises strike.

Dispersal and distributed operations are at the heart of how best to deal with a significant offensive threat.

And in major exercises like Arctic Challenge, the Finns are demonstrating how their legacy approach is informing their way ahead and how it can be modernized as new systems are being added to the liberal democratic force structure.

Lt. General Kim Jäämeri: “It is becoming clear to our partners that you cannot run air operations in a legacy manner under the threat of missile barrages of long range weapons.

“The legacy approach to operating from air bases just won’t work in these conditions.

“For many of our partners, this is a revelation; for us it has been a fact of life for a long time, and we have operated with this threat in the forefront of operations for a long time.”

What clearly is new or evolving is the key role of exercises for Finland and the cross-learning which comes for both Finland and its exercise partners.

Finland passed legislation last year which allows Finland to both provide and receive military assistance which provides the legal framework for shaping ways ahead in exercising with other militaries and shaping cross learning in the military operational domain.

Lt. General Kim Jäämeri: The legislation has brought logic to our exercise structure.

“It also clarifies how the European Union Treaty 42.7 would be practically executed; if someone asked for assistance, then now we have in place the procedures and structures to take proper decisions to provide for assistance.”

With the enhanced concern about the military situation in Europe after the events in Crimea obviously there has been enhanced focus within Europe on territorial defense.

With the Finns, this has clearly seen a renewed emphasis on force readiness and an ability to act more effectively in a crisis.

Lt. General Kim Jäämeri: “We have enhanced our focus on crisis management and the role of the military within overall crisis management.

“We have increased our investments in force readiness.

“With regard to our partners, their enhanced focus of attention on defense, whether it be the actions of Sweden, Norway or Denmark in the region, or by the United States within NATO with regard to the EDI-related investments, has been appreciated.

“And as we expand our exercise regime, we are cross-learning with regard to capabilities necessary for our defense.

‘You have to leverage your partnerships more to enhance crisis stability.”

There is always the challenge of paying for defense investments, and the cost of maintaining conscription while adding new ground, naval and air capabilities will be challenging for Finland as it is for other liberal democracies.

The Finns are organized around a joint force structure, although respecting the differences among ground, sea and air operations.

But any major acquisition must provide a joint effect.

Lt. General Kim Jäämeri: “With regard to the Hornet successor, clearly its contribution to joint operations is a key aspect.

“For example, how will it help the navy more effectively fire their missiles at the relevant targets?”

“For more than two decades now there’s only one force development process and it’s fully joint.

“I’ve sat in a meeting this morning running through capability reviews from different services where any capability that’s required for our defense is always looked through the joint glasses.

“We only have one defense minister, no secretaries for the air force or navy or whatever; it’s all under the Chief of Defense (CHOD) and he drives this as a joint machine.

“Obviously, services need to be able to cherish their expertise, and that’s why we maintain them: you can’t do what some forces tried in the ’80s, where everybody puts on a violet uniform; it doesn’t work.”

In short, Finland has enhanced the readiness of its forces, is working more closely with partners, and through military exercises generating and learning from key partners with regard to operational innovations.

And the core defense DNA characteristics of the Finns, namely, to operate forces in a distributed manner and prepare to mobilize, are becoming key themes which other liberal democracies need to take heed of as the global situation changes.

Cobra Gold 18

Royal Thai, Republic of Korea and U.S. armed forces come ashore at Hat Yao Beach, Rayong province, Thailand, Feb. 17, 2018 for an amphibious assault during Exercise Cobra Gold 18.

Cobra Gold, in its 37th iteration, is designed to advance interoperability amongst allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region.

Cobra Gold is one of the largest exercises in the Indo-Pacific region and improves the capabilities of participating nations in the event of natural disasters.

HAT YAO BEACH, THAILAND

02.17.2018

Video by Airman 1st Class Timothy Tweet 

III Marine Expeditionary Force

U.S. Marines train with Spanish Marines

02/27/18: U.S. Marines with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Africa train with Spanish Marines at the San Fernando Barracks, Spain, Jan. 10, 2017.

SPMAGTF-CR-AF is deployed to conduct limited crisis-response and theater-security operations in Europe and North Africa.

SAN FERNANDO, SPAIN

01.10.2018

Video by Sgt. Takoune Norasingh 

U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Europe and Africa

COPE NORTH 18

2/27/18: U.S. Air Force Colonel Ryan Sweeney, 36 Wing Operations Group Commander, U.S. Air Force Colonel Britt Hurst, U.S. COPE NORTH Exercise Director, Koku Jieitai (Japan Air Self-Defense Force) Colonel Kensuke Onishi, the Japanese COPE NORTH Exercise Director, and Royal Australian Air Force Group Captain Ben Sleeman, the Australian COPE NORTH Exercise Director meet with media on Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Feb. 21.

COPE NORTH allows the U.S. and allied forces to practice humanitarian assistance/disaster relief efforts to prepare for and recover from the devastating effects of natural disasters.

COPE NORTH 18 from SldInfo.com on Vimeo.

ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, GUAM

02.21.2018

Video by Airman 1st Class Phillip M Guadiana-Gomez 

Pacific Air Forces Public Affairs

The Reaper Joins the 147th Attack Wing

02/25/2018

02/25/18: The MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial system flew for the first time out of Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base yesterday.

The remotely piloted aircraft flew for the first time out of the 147th Attack Wing marking a new era for the base.

HOUSTON, TX, UNITED STATES

01.18.2018

Video by Master Sgt. Sean Cowher, Senior Airman Renee Crugnaleand Staff Sgt. Daniel Martinez

147th Attack Wing (Texas Air National Guard)

Remembering Danny Lam: Combating Conventional Wisdom

02/24/2018

2018-02-18 By Robbin Laird

This week’s Wall Street Journal Saturday essay is on the crippling consensus which has descended on American campuses with the withering of relevant debate to shaping a way ahead for the liberal democracies.

In a world where universities think it is somehow acceptable to have safe areas where debate is prohibited, we have marked the demise of the university.

As Amy Wax wrote about her experience:

There is a lot of abstract talk these days on American college campuses about free speech and the values of free inquiry, with lip service paid to expansive notions of free expression and the marketplace of ideas.

What I’ve learned through my recent experience of writing a controversial op-ed is that most of this talk is not worth much.

It is only when people are confronted with speech they don’t like that we see whether these abstractions are real to them.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-cant-be-debated-on-campus-1518792717?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1

Normally, I would call Danny Lam and discuss this piece for Lam was a significant contributor to Second Line of Defense and the Second Line of Defense Forum and was in constant motion against the reigning conventional wisdom.

When we founded the website, we used the Patton quote: “If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.”

Clearly, Danny Lam thought and challenged conventional wisdom throughout his work and life.

Unfortunately, he was unable to prevail against the foe what we all face and succumb to, namely, our inevitable deaths.

His friend and colleague David Jimenez informed me earlier this week of the death of Danny Lam on February 11, 2018.

David kindly provides us with a biography of Danny, which we can share with our readers.

Dr. Danny Lam (BA, University of Waterloo; MBA, Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario; MASc. Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo; Ph.D., Carleton University) was a noted semiconductor analyst who studied and worked  with semiconductor startup programs on three continents over four decades.

He was recently a Research Associate at the Waterloo  Institute for Sustainable Energy (WISE) at the University of Waterloo  where he completed a dissertation on “Defense Energy Systems for the  21st Century” in 2014.

His four decades in microelectronics and  technology included stints in industry and academe.

Dr. Lam’s  research and analysis has appeared on CNBC, the Wall Street Journal,
and the Handbook of Technology Management (McGraw Hill, 1996) and  numerous technical publications.
Dr. Danny Lam

Dr. Lam was a major resource for IBM and Infineon in their multiple  negotiations on the sale of Altis Semiconductor. Dr. Lam’s work  defined the market for Altis’ products and the technology transfer  roadmap, which supported the price negotiations.

Dr. Danny Lam was a long time client, supporter, and affiliate of Wright Williams & Kelly, Inc. He began his affiliation with WWK in the 1990’s when he was a professor at Auburn University studying quantitative methods for site selection.  He later founded The Fairview Group, a market research firm focused on consumer electronics purchasing patterns. During that time, he was granted a J-visa by the Peoples Republic of China; a rare privilege normally only granted to large journalism organizations like Reuters and the Associated Press.

In 2003, Dr. Lam was an original investor in a management-led buy out of WWK from CH2M Hill Companies Ltd.  From that point on Dr. Lam was an integral part of the WWK consulting practice with a focus on semiconductor markets, mergers & acquisitions, and defense & aerospace.  His research and insights were published in TheHill.com, Asia Times, The Conversation, Second Line of Defense, and Aviation Week.

We thank David for this biographical information.

The Second Line of Defense team and readers knew Danny through his keen insights and challenging thinking.

And it is in that light that I have received several emails already from core team members, which underscore his contribution, but this one summarized the general feeling of the team:

“Very sorry to of Danny Lam’s unexpected death…I always found his contributions amazingly insightful…”

The breadth of his work was refreshing as well.

The last piece he wrote for us which we just published this week, after news of his death, focuses on redesign of defense systems.

https://www.sldinfo.com/reimagining-energy-for-modern-combat-platforms/

He believed that President Trump represented an important turning point in the way ahead for the liberal democracies, and wrote several pieces on this theme, the most recent one being:

https://www.sldinfo.com/trumpism-and-the-retooling-of-american-politics/

He provided regular analysis of the evolving North Korean crisis and underscored in very clear ways why this was not a nuclear crisis of the Cold War period, but clearly within the paradigm of the Second Nuclear Age, e.g.:

https://www.sldinfo.com/forceful-de-nuclearization-of-north-korea-and-building-the-new-korea/

His work on the PRC was significant in highlighting the regional dynamics within China and their potential significance for policy making, and we built a special report around his work:

https://www.sldinfo.com/rethinking-china-policy-a-new-special-report/

I could go on but unfortunately Danny is not.

We would like to honor his memory by naming the op ed section of our forthcoming new website defense.info: “Danny’s Corner.”

In some sense, the spirit of Danny will live on.

As one of core team put it in an email to me upon hearing the news:

“I am sorry to hear about Danny.

“He was a refreshing and thoughtful voice in todays mainstream nonsense.”