Swiss-Finnish dual citizens are basically in a bind in any crisis situation. On the one hand doing Swiss military service excuses from doing it here, but you're still under the Finnish constitutional defence duty. Which the Swiss constitution bans. And not reporting for duty as ordered in Finland during a state of emergency/defence becomes a crime. And vice versa.

The only winning move is not to play.

Um. Claim you're Estonian? Latvian, maybe?

Well, that or there's always the bonespurs route...

Edited by Euodiachloris on Feb 27th 2019 at 11:09:59 AM

Well, if there's an actual war going on I'm fairly certain getting help from anywhere at all would be appreciated. The value judgement of going or not is up to the individual. I also suspect that if the proper paperwork is filed, they'll just not call you in unless they really need you.

Edited by TerminusEst on Feb 27th 2019 at 3:17:13 AM

I know the Swiss have agreements with some countries like Germany, France and the US in case the said person can prove that he has dual nationality and has the willingness to serve in the other country's military.

I don't know if they had one with the Finnish.

Fun fact now that I'm trying to do research on Swiss national service for some fic I plan to write up.

Edited by Ominae on Feb 27th 2019 at 5:11:18 AM

Random thought: can a European Arrest Warrant be issued for draft dodging in a EU member state?

Yes. We've had a few, I believe. I'm not familiar with the specifics, but it isn't usually used unless someone has blatantly attempted to draft dodge.

Edited by TerminusEst on Feb 27th 2019 at 5:55:59 AM

Old vid of Finnish military/police/other LE Os training in Turku.

Massive firefight raging in Mogadishu after Shabab bombing. The Shabab have holed themselves up next to a hotel they've bombed, and security forces are still trying to dislodge the militants. A night assault didn't go well, but hopefully they can clear the building by the daytime.

African Allies grapple with rise in terrorist attacks as US pulls back. The report centers around Burkina Faso.

According to the ground reports, Trump's claim that ISIS is 100% defeated is actually a 100% untrue. The fighting continues, and the Syrian Democratic Forces are trying their best.

Grim week for Africa and the Middle East overall.

Edited by TheWildWestPyro on Mar 1st 2019 at 4:07:58 AM

Looks like Foal Eagle is going to get discontinued:

From AFP:

Edited by Ominae on Mar 1st 2019 at 9:09:57 AM

Man that is a bad time for the Middle East. Been a while since Somalia lit up that badly. Hopefully, it isn't a sign of things to come.

It is if Trump get reelected.

Heckler & Koch Fined $4.2 Million for Rifle Sales In Mexico

20mm Anti-Aircraft Munitions Washing Up On Shore In Washington State

Opening of the Finnish Army seminar. The different panels are recorded and available from the channel as well. First time they put these in Youtube.

Heavy on the military sciences department, but maybe there's something interesting for people.

Edited by TerminusEst on Mar 4th 2019 at 6:30:59 AM

The world's most dangerous job is likely being part of the Afghan National Police.

That was the slot formally taken by "Baghdad ambulance driver".

The Swedish Defence Research Agency published a report that questions the effectiveness of Russia's S-400 system. In particular, it points out that the system would need a Cooperative Engagement capability to engage low-flying targets at the claimed operational range, which the US Navy only managed to achieve recently.

Good luck trying to fly tankers and AWACS planes low.

Tankers and AWACS can fly anywhere they want if a low-flying wild weasel wiped the field clean beforehand.

Frankly, given the absolutely appalling performance Pantsir has shown I think it’s fair to begin to question the extent of Russian AA capabilities. They’ve long had a fearsome reputation, but it’s becoming more and more uncertain how much of that reputation is reflected in reality.

And Putin does love bragging to compensate what seem to be apparent fears that NATO and the accursed Westerners can go toe-to-toe with mighty Rossiya.

I generally believe that the more one boasts about how big and shiny their metaphorical dick is, the less impressive it is in reality.

About the only time the Pantsirs have fallen through in Russian service are failing to swat a bunch of radio shack toys with hand grenades tied to them which is a bit outside the expected target list of most CIWS and SHORAD systems.

I’d argue that’s well inside the expected target list for close-in defense in the Middle East. And either way, poor performance against what were by all accounts perfectly cooperative targets is not a good sign.

Don’t forget that was really the least of the problems Pantsir has seen. They’ve been getting routinely smoked by the Israelis, failing to shoot down weapons the Russians have specifically advertised the system as guaranteed to defeat. Not a good look.

Like I said, I think it’s time to start questioning the hype on Russian air defense. It’s becoming pretty clear that the advertised specs are far from reality.

Edited by archonspeaks on Mar 4th 2019 at 8:38:03 AM

Partly

Garcon: Or you know completely failing twice to interdict US and Western cruise missile swarms. Something it was touted as being quite specifically capable of. To add to it the fact a large US and Allied raid was even able to get close enough to Russian protected air space to spam missiles in the first place.

The facts on the ground are quite simple. The Russians have been overhyping most of their kit and the US push to use long-range standoff attacks is proving beyond their ability to reliably interdict. Take what the Russians tout with a spoonful of salt. Their kit can be quite dangerous but the US has demonstrated a knack in more recent years of finding holes in its capability. It doesn't help the US has been aggressively pursuing alternatives to things like pure stealth and improving the strike capability of the bulk of their fleet, not just a few craft.

Edited by TuefelHundenIV on Mar 4th 2019 at 10:39:08 AM

If you mean those raids on Syrian chemical facilities a while back the Russians explicitly turned their entire air defense network off, including all the radars they loaned to Assad and left him out to dry.

Always take Russian advertisement with some salt but we really haven't seen Pantsirs or Russian AA actually engage targets with the amount of support it's supposed to have.

All the Pantsirs the Israelis have destroyed have been lone units parked somewhere and not the networked group of six or more with a dedicated radar station like they're supposed to have for serious area denial.

The Saudis are losing Abrams left and right and Turks aren't doing much better with their Leopards but does that mean that it's time to write off both platforms?

Edited by LeGarcon on Mar 4th 2019 at 12:19:35 PM

“Turned the air defense network off”, yeah sure. Note that they didn’t start with that line until almost a week after the attack, even though they were claiming until practically hours before the attack that they’d never turn the network off and that it would work great.

As for the Pantsirs, you can see them on video trying and failing to shoot down munitions the Russians have specifically advertised them as being effective against. In the most recent event three Pantsirs out of a formation of several were destroyed, and despite firing dozens of missiles were unable to touch a single Israeli aircraft or block any attacks.

Edited by archonspeaks on Mar 4th 2019 at 9:21:25 AM