Finnish conscripts sleep alone in forests to evade drones

Finnish conscripts are increasingly sleeping separately in forests rather than in tents because heat from a stove could reveal their position to drones, Yle reports.

The change reflects how Russia’s war in Ukraine and the threat posed by drones have altered warfare. During a four-day exercise in a forest in Uusimaa, conscripts and reservists from the Guard Jaeger Regiment slept apart from one another in sleeping bags, using camouflage nets and trees for protection.

A tent stove radiating heat would be an easy target for a drone to locate. The reconnaissance team’s soldiers slept only for a few hours at a time, but officer candidate Jesper Taavitsainen said he did not feel particularly tired.

Officer candidate Lasse Lindell said the team had been dispersed to make it harder to detect. The group was not gathered in one place when he gave the order to move.

The threat of drones is also shifting training from classrooms to the battlefield. Officers who spoke anonymously to Helsingin Sanomat in August criticised Finnish conscript training, saying lessons from Ukraine had not been adopted.

Under current regulations, companies of 100 to 200 soldiers still move and attack as a concentrated force. One of the officers interviewed said troops trained in that way would have no chance of reaching their positions alive.

The war in Ukraine has made the term kill zone increasingly familiar. It refers to a strip between the warring sides that can stretch for dozens of kilometres. Moving through it without being detected by drones and targeted with lethal payloads is difficult.

The critics said change was being slowed by a conservative attitude, problems with drone equipment and the short training period for conscripts.

Brigadier General Sami Antti Takamaa, head of training at Finland’s General Staff, said the criticism was justified from the anonymous officers’ point of view. He said it was concerning that they had apparently been unable to discuss the issues within their own units.

Takamaa said changes had already been made. Conscripts now spend less time in classrooms, with additional activities removed to focus on combat training and operating on the battlefield.

The Training 2026 programme was piloted this summer in four military units and will be introduced across all units next summer. The programme covers drones, operating in mined areas, the combatant’s mental state and first aid for combatants.

Some of the lessons are already being applied. The design of trenches has been changed so they can be covered and made harder for drones to attack.

Infantry military service lasts five and a half months. Asked whether that was enough time to learn the necessary skills, Takamaa said it was probably the minimum. He said extending the period was a matter for society to decide.

The reconnaissance team later moved under Lindell’s leadership through several kilometres of dense forest, carrying packs weighing 40 kilograms. They exchanged few words as branches snapped underfoot.

The group included top athletes. Lindell is a Finnish champion in the 49er sailing class, while Taavitsainen won his first Finnish adult judo championship in February during his military service.

Both praised the training they had received at the Reserve Officer School. Taavitsainen said drone threats had been discussed extensively and taken into account well.

Lindell said he believed Finland’s training was better than that of almost anywhere else in the world. He added that it was difficult to draw direct lessons from Ukraine because the situation there changed daily and the country was effectively conducting a war exercise every day.

The race to develop weapons is accelerating, and new technologies are entering the battlefield.