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ACE 17 Air Exercise Again Fully Carried Out With Success

Air Force
Publication date 2.6.2017 9.06
Press release

The last waves of Arctic Challenge Exercise 2017 having lasted nearly two weeks were flown on Thursday 1 June. The exercise comes to an end on Friday 2 June when the foreign participants' aircraft will set out one by one for their home bases.

Harjoituksen johtaja eversti Petteri Seppälä

The air operations exercise of more than one hundred military aircraft over three nations' area required thorough planning before the exercise but the final result is rewarding. Exercise Director Colonel Petteri Seppälä is satisfied with the carrying out and implementation of the exercise.


Colonel Seppälä, how did it feel to lead such a complex and large-scale exercise?

Being an exercise director was extremely interesting and it was also an instructive and enjoyable experience. I really appreciated having the opportunity to work with top professionals from different countries. It was a great honour for me to lead the work of the commanding and headquarters staff which enabled me to establish many good work relationships and friendships across the borders.

Together with my steering group we created a favourable development-oriented atmosphere with the aim of identifying any development needs and getting their improvement started as soon as possible. In my opinion we succeeded very well.

The active cooperation with foreign media was of special interest for me. All in all, to lead exercise ACE 17 was not only enjoyable, but also one of the best experiences in my career.


The objective of ACE 17 was to increase the capability of multinational units to participate in a wide variety of combined air operations in crisis management. How did the exercise go and did you achieve the objectives?

The exercise was conducted with flying colours. The primary goal truly was, focusing on the air crews' skills, to train the units for conducting large-scale air operations as part of international crisis management activities.

A total of eighteen waves were flown during the exercise and in nine of them the aircraft practised more complex and large air operations in particular. During these flight missions the air crews, command and control personnel as well as ground crew received top-notch training for operations in a multinational and extremely challenging operating environment.
 

Lentokierros ACE 17 -harjoituksessa
Photo: Jean-Luc Brunet / Armeé de l´Air


The Finnish Air Force was this year the lead nation of the ACE for the first time. How did Finland do in this role? Which were the most significant lessons learned for the Finnish Air Force?

Earlier Finland has only been one of the host nations, but this time Finland had also the leading role. Based on my discussions with my foreign colleagues, I have every reason to confirm that Finland succeeded in its task well. Especially the demanding planning process, involving participants from various nations, led by Major Toni Postila was accomplished successfully and therefore provided a solid foundation for the implementation of the exercise.

An exercise of such a scale definitely always gives a lot to learn. From the Finnish perspective the most important lessons learned relate to, among other things, the execution of command and control in a complex air operation, the improvement of air crews' skills in varied missions as part of a large air operation and our base support activities to host multinational units at our base.


The exercise ends on 2 June. What does the redeployment activities of such an exercise include and what are the things to be taken into account?

The planning and preparations for the exercise were a long-term project that took over eighteen months. Also redeployment is naturally a great effort. Although the return of the most visible part of the exercise -
I mean, the aircraft - to their home bases will go relatively easily and rapidly, the rundown of the logistic arrangements of the units requires plenty of work. It will take weeks for running down all the activities.

In addition, redeployment includes the identification of the elements to be developed and the working of these observations into actual measures. This is called Lessons Identified & Lessons Learned or LI & LL. The process has already started in the Hot Wash Up meeting and will continue according to specific guidelines allowing optimal use of the outcomes for the planning of the next ACE.


In addition to Finland, Sweden and Norway, eight other countries took part in the ACE with their aircraft and personnel. What kind of feedback have you received from the foreign participants?

During the exercise I've keenly discussed with many participants from various countries, and, for example, when I visited Rovaniemi and Kallax bases, I met the commanding staff of the units operating from those bases. I've also exchanged views on the exercise with the foreign visitors who represented civilian and military leadership. The message of all discussions and feedback given to me included a common opinion that the exercise as such is of the utmost importance and the exercise, just completed, was well planned and implemented indeed.

All involved have shared the appreciation for the capability of the three Air Forces to promote Nordic defence cooperation in such a favourable and productive manner. We will carry out an in-depth analysis of the feedback in connection with the LI & LL process.


ACE exercises have been organised every other year since 2013. Next time Sweden will again be the lead nation. What do you think about the future of the Arctic Challenge Exercises?

The ACE has come to a full circle, and Sweden that was in the leading role of the first ACE in 2013 will regain this role in the next exercise. I think the ACE concept has a very bright future and I can see that there is a clear need for this kind of exercise.

As we speak, the host nations are indeed discussing the development of the exercise, and, as we have come to witness so far, the following exercise is, again, bound to be better than the previous one.

The ACE concept is part of Nordic defence cooperation and it is firmly supported at different levels in the host nations. This event has an excellent reputation among professionals worldwide.

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