Finnish Hornets and American F-15s to join up on combined training missions

Finnish Boeing F/A-18 Hornet multirole fighters are scheduled to fly air combat training missions with the Boeing F-15 Eagles of a United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) detachment based in Estonia in August and September. The missions will be conducted in Finland's airspace. The F-15s will also contribute to cross border training missions of the Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish air forces in the training areas extending across the three nations' northern regions.

The participating USAFE assets belong to the 493rd Fighter Squadron. The mission objectives are to offer opportunities for dissimilar aircraft combat training and improve the participating airmen's skills for working in a multinational environment.

The missions, scheduled to be flown during weeks 33, 34, and 35, will involve 4–6 Hornets and an equal number of F-15s. The Finnish aircraft will operate out of their home bases, while the USAFE's assets take off and return to the Ämari air base in Estonia and will not land in Finland's territory.

The missions will be mounted on working days between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Most flying will be over the sea off Turku, Pori, and Vaasa on Finland's southwestern and western coastal areas and within overland training areas between Tampere, Jyväskylä, Oulu, Kokkola, and Seinäjoki.

The F-15s are also set to join cross border missions conducted by the Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish air assets in the northern training areas.

Flare countermeasures deployed by exercise aircraft may be seen as bright spots of light in the sky. Sorties may also involve supersonic flying, which will be heard as sonic booms on the ground.

Simultaneously with the Finnish-USAFE missions, the Finnish Air Force is set to conduct combined sorties with Eurofighter Typhoons of Britain's Royal Air Force on deployment in the Baltic states.

The first missions with Baltic-based assets were flown in 2015, when participating aircraft came from Britain, Germany, and the USA. Additionally, the Finnish Air Force has for several years participated in weekly cross border training with the Norwegian and Swedish air forces, following the same procedures and involving identical objectives as those in place for combined training with the Baltic-based detachments.