Finnish Air Force to participate in Ramstein Alloy 2019-2

The Finnish Air Force will take part in Ramstein Alloy 2019-2 with two F/A-18 Hornet multi-role fighters from 25 to 27 June.

^{A Finnish Air Force F/A-18 with two Spanish Air Force F/A-18s during a Ramstein Alloy exercise in June 2017.}

The objective of the Ramstein Alloy exercise series is to enhance the cooperation and interoperability of NATO member and partner nations’ Air Forces operating in the Baltic region. The training scenarios include missions such as the identification and escort of an aircraft suffering from communications loss (COMLOSS).

During Ramstein Alloy 2019-2, the Finnish F/A-18s will operate out of Rissala Air Base, Finland. In between the training missions, the aircraft will visit Ämari Air Base in Estonia, and return to Rissala at the end of the day. The training missions will take place in the international airspace above the Baltic Sea and in Finnish, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian airspace.

In addition to the Finnish F/A-18s, aircraft from the Air Forces of Sweden, Norway, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, Hungary and Spain, as well as an AWACS from the NATO E-3A Component, will fly in the exercise.

The Finnish Air Force has taken part in the Ramstein Alloy exercise series, originally known as the Baltic Region Training Events (BRTE), since 2008. The previous time the Finnish Air Force participated in Ramstein Alloy was in September 2018.