Finland’s F-35s will do what drones cannot

Finland’s new F-35 fighter jets are designed to control airspace and support land and naval forces, tasks drones cannot perform, Yle reports. The aircraft are due to arrive in Rovaniemi on Thursday, strengthening Finland’s defence as warfare changes rapidly.

Henrik Elo, the Finnish Air Force’s F-35 project manager, says drones are highly lethal, making it essential for Finland both to operate them and to defend against them. But he stresses that drones and fighter jets have different roles: the F-35s are intended to establish control of the air.

In Ukraine, large minefields, artillery and growing numbers of small drones have helped both sides prevent advances in a grinding war of attrition, says Justin Bronk, a visiting senior researcher at RUSI, a security policy research institute in London. Drones inflict long-term losses, but they have not produced decisive breakthroughs, he says.

Ukraine has gained an advantage in drone warfare through its combat experience, Bronk says, but it has neither defeated Russia nor lost the war. He calls it strange to argue that European countries could achieve more with drones than Ukraine has. Fighter jets, he says, are designed to destroy air defences, take control of the air and attack an army from above. Drones cannot do that.

Elo points to Syria as an example of the importance of air power. The defending side lacked air-defence capability, giving the Assad government and its Russian backers an advantage over the rebels. The attackers gained air superiority and freedom of action, and bombed large parts of Aleppo back to the Stone Age, he says.

Ukraine has tried hard to acquire fighter jets during the war. China is developing a next-generation crewed fighter, produces more than 100 advanced fighters a year and is manufacturing missiles. Despite its extensive drone industry and artificial intelligence expertise, China does not appear to see large numbers of drones as a replacement for advanced air power, Bronk says.

Finland’s F-35s are designed to operate in groups and combine information from their sensors and cameras into a shared picture of the situation. The aircraft can identify, classify, track and analyse threats, and can also detect artillery fire and locate artillery, missile and rocket-launcher positions. That information is intended to reach land and naval forces in real time.

The Finnish aircraft are called JF, meaning joint fighter, because they are intended to connect the Air Force with the Army and Navy. Elo says Finland has already practised sharing information using fighter jets from other countries, and has succeeded. It may take time to make the flow of information fully seamless, Bronk says, but Finland can now test and develop systems for the new aircraft.