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Finland’s Border Special Forces Run Deep Forest Helicopter Drills Near Russian Frontier.
Finnish Border Guard readiness troops conducted helicopter insertions in remote forests near the Russian border, according to new images released on 11 November. The training underscores Finland’s growing role as a front-line NATO state and its focus on rapid response along the 1,340 kilometer frontier.
On 11 November 2025, images released from the deep forests of southeast Finland showed members of the Finnish Border Guard’s 1st Readiness Unit stepping out of a Hughes MD500 light utility helicopter, assault rifles at the ready, into a remote landing zone near the Russian frontier. The photo series, published under the heading of the unit’s autumn activities, provides a rare glimpse into the training of one of Finland’s most discreet border special forces formations. As reported by the Southeast Finland Border Guard, the unit is part of the Finnish Border Guard and is responsible for maintaining border security in its operational area, which includes several of the most important crossing points on the 1,340 km frontier with Russia. The timing and content of this deployment highlight how Finland, now a NATO member since April 2023, is quietly reinforcing its role as a front-line state for the Alliance in the High North and along NATO’s newly extended eastern flank.
Finnish border forces trained by helicopter in deep forest near Russia, underscoring their rapid response role (Picture Source: Finnish Border Guard)
The images underline how the 1st Readiness Unit combines high mobility with deep familiarity of the forested border environment. The MD500, an American-designed light utility helicopter derived from the OH-6 scout and widely used for reconnaissance, insertion and utility missions, is small, fast and agile enough to land in narrow forest clearings, precisely the terrain that dominates the Finnish-Russian border region. From the photographs, operators in camouflage gear and full combat equipment rapidly disembark and fan out into the treeline, illustrating a typical scenario where border special forces can be inserted without road access to interdict irregular crossings, track hostile reconnaissance teams or secure key terrain before other units arrive. The Border Guard’s readiness units were consolidated in the 2000s into two professional special intervention formations, with the 1st Readiness Unit subordinated to the Southeast Finland Border Guard and trained and equipped for the most demanding border-security missions anywhere in the country, while remaining available to support police and other authorities when required. This combination of dedicated air mobility and highly trained border operators gives Helsinki a tool set that can respond within minutes to incidents along one of Europe’s most sensitive borders.
Militarily, the training sequence speaks to a wider effort to harden Finland’s border regions against hybrid and conventional scenarios. The Southeast Finland Border Guard’s area of responsibility includes the Nuijamaa, Vaalimaa and Imatra crossing points, the Vainikkala rail link and sections of the Saimaa canal, all of which have been focal points in recent debates on migration pressure and the possible instrumentalisation of civilian flows for political ends. In this context, a helicopter-borne special unit capable of operating in forests, lake districts and urban fringes provides far more than classic counter-infiltration capacity: it also offers a flexible platform for joint operations with police, customs and other agencies ranging from high-risk arrests to ship boardings and critical-infrastructure protection. Past reporting on readiness unit operations has highlighted fast-rope insertions from helicopters onto vessels at sea, complex night exercises and close integration with elite police units such as the Karhu rapid response team, underlining their role as a national-level instrument rather than a purely regional asset. Exercises like the one captured on 11 November show that, beneath the level of large-scale NATO drills, Finland is routinely rehearsing granular, scenario-based responses tailored to its unique wooded and lacustrine terrain.
Geostrategically, these helicopter drills fit into a broader pattern of Finnish and allied activity around the Baltic and Arctic regions. Finland’s accession to NATO in April 2023 more than doubled the Alliance’s direct land border with Russia, and Helsinki has since embraced the role of “front-line state” in both political messaging and practical defence planning. In parallel with the border-focused special forces training in Southeast Finland, the country also took part in a high-profile long-range air operation when Finnish Air Force F/A-18 Hornets escorted a U.S. Air Force B-52H bomber on a Bomber Task Force mission over Finland, including simulated weapons releases designated by Finnish joint terminal attack controllers at the Sotinpuro range, as reported by Army Recognition. While the helicopter insertions and strategic bomber flights occur at very different levels of escalation, together they send a coherent deterrence message: Finland is prepared to defend its territory from the forest floor to the upper airspace, and to integrate national capabilities seamlessly with allied forces. This layered posture complicates any adversary’s calculations by coupling local familiarity and rapid reaction along the border with the credible prospect of long-range, high-end conventional responses.
Taken together, the discreet imagery of border special forces stepping out of a Hughes MD500 into a Finnish forest and the high-visibility bomber escort flights highlight the depth of Finland’s ongoing strategic adjustment. The Southeast Finland Border Guard’s 1st Readiness Unit embodies the country’s determination to keep day-to-day control of its frontier, employing agile, helicopter-borne teams able to respond quickly to ambiguous incidents or overt provocations in difficult terrain. At the same time, Finland’s integration into NATO’s air and land posture, from Bomber Task Force cooperation to future multinational land forces and headquarters on its soil, signals that any crisis along this border will be managed within an allied framework rather than in isolation. In a security environment shaped by Russia’s war against Ukraine and persistent hybrid pressure, the message is clear: Finland is investing simultaneously in tactical agility at the treeline and in strategic depth with its allies, ensuring that its long eastern border remains both surveilled and defensible at every level of conflict.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.