• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Air Force (Ilmavoimat) - History - Cold War

The end of the Continuation War meant that the Air Force was almost completely stopped. The flight ban imposed by the Allied Control Commission in the autumn of 1944, from the ceasefire to August 1945, temporarily halted training and exercise flights.

The advent of peace also meant fleet reductions and changes in the functioning of the entire defense branch. The Paris Peace Treaty, signed in 1947, defined the Air Force's combat aircraft strength to be 60 aircraft and a maximum personnel of 3,000. The agreement also banned airborne airplanes and missiles and nuclear weapons capable of carrying an internal bomb load. In addition, the Swastika emblem of Count von Rosen was replaced by a blue-and-white cockroach, which is still used as the national symbol of the Air Force aircraft.

The reduction requirements led to a significant reduction in wartime aircraft and the transfer of personnel from the Air Force to the Civilian. Most of the bombers and older fighter aircraft were scrapped. Hundreds of Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter jets were used as the main equipment of the defense branch.

In 1952, a new organization was formed, replacing the four peacetime flight regiments, established in late 1944, with three aircraft located at Tikkakoski's Luonetjärvi, Pori and Utti. Later, the forces, called Häme, Satakunta and Karelia, had as their main tasks the fight against fighter jets, training flight operations and reconnaissance.

In the years following World War II, international military aviation developed rapidly. Reciprocating propeller aircraft types made room for the more powerful jet fighters that had received their first combat contact during the war.

In the Air Force, development was actively monitored, but it was not until the late 1950s that it was truly incorporated after the scant years of the war.

An important milestone on the way to the modernization of the defense branch was the Vihuri Advanced Training Machine, designed and built by the State Aircraft Factory in 1951. There were a number of widespread accidents for the greyhounds, but the aircraft was still of considerable importance to the Air Force. It brought the much needed relief to the fleet and kept the wheels of flight training rolling until the end of the decade.

In 1953, the Air Force received its first jet with the acquisition of the de Havilland Vampire in Britain. Vampire was also followed by the more powerful Folland Gnat jet fighters purchased from the island kingdom in 1957 for the first time in Finland. Two further acquisitions were made in 1958, which proved to be very profitable over time. Saab Safir school machines and Fouga Magister jet trainers served until the 1980s. They provided a good basis for instructor training in the increasingly powerful fighter aircraft fleet for decades to come.

In the same year, the last type of aircraft involved in the war, the Bristol Blenheim Bomber, also decommissioned. The construction of a state-wide nationwide air surveillance radar network and air defense command lines located in rock shields also began in the 1950s. With the advent of the 1960s, the rapid development of aeronautical technology set increasing demands on Finland's air defense. Airborne defense control and aircraft performance had to match situations where airborne targets were flying at multiple sound speeds and tens of thousands of meters high.

At the beginning of the decade, the Air Force had only limited response to new air threats. Twelve horizontal Gnat fighters capable of sub-zero speeds and 12-kilometer altitudes represented the most powerful equipment in the defense branch, and even the control and command system did not fully meet the requirements of the time.

The situation improved in 1962, when the Soviet Union acquired a fleet of MiG-21F fighter fighters, which were deployed in the fleet of Karelia Lennosto, which moved from Utti to Rissala, and Häme Lennosto in Luonetjärvi.

Able to double the speed of sound and reach an operating height of almost 20 kilometers, the MiG was an up-to-date and high-performance fighter at the time of its acquisition, even on an international scale. Combat capability was enhanced by the introduction of the heat-seeking K-13 airborne missile into the aircraft following an amendment to the Paris Peace Agreement.

In addition to the fight against fighter jets, the Air Force Command, Control, and Support System took significant advances. The air surveillance radar network had been built throughout the country in the 1950s, but the large-range radar equipment acquired in the new decade significantly expanded its surveillance capability.

In the 1960s, the main command centers in air raid shelters were also built as air defense command posts. In addition, the Air Force began work on establishing decentralized road bases throughout the country during the crisis.

New Air Force units established during the decade were the Air Force Fleet, separated from the Karelian Airport, and the Air Force Technical School, which was dismantled from the Air Force School in Kauhava. The Air Force Message Battalion, which moved from Hämeenlinna to Lake Luonetjärvi, became the Air Force Message School. In addition, the Koelentue, which had begun before the wars in Härmälä, Tampere, was completely transferred to Kuorevesi Hall.

In addition to the MiGs, two other new aircraft types were introduced to the fleet, the Defense Forces' first helicopters, the Polish-made SM-1s, serving four years. In contrast, Iljushi Il-28 jet bombers were purchased from the Soviet Union for towing and surveillance purposes.

The 1970s have been characterized as an era when the Air Force finally reached a state of the art in terms of equipment and operations after the post-war reconstruction. A major part of the Air Force's performance development in the seventies was aircraft procurement. In 1972, the Air Force took a major step forward and achieved all-weather combat capability with the introduction of the Swedish Saab Draken Fighters.

The most important new features of the Draken compared to its previous fleet were radar and semi-active radar missiles, which made it possible to carry out missions for the first time in all weather and lighting conditions. New to the previous aircraft was also the ability to shoot target flying missiles, whereas in the past shooting had always to be from the rear sector.

With the arrival of the Drakens, the scope of air defense also expanded. In the past, the Air Force's most powerful aircraft had been stationed mainly in southern Finland, but the Gnat aircraft, now abandoned in Häme, were equipped with Drakens and moved to their new headquarters in Rovaniemi. Later, the unit was named the Lapland Air Force. All-weather combat capability was further enhanced through the procurement of a new, radar-based BIS version of the MiG-21 fighter in 1978. The planes, like the previous Soviet jet fighters, were stationed at the Karelia Airport in Rissala.

In addition to the procurement of aircraft, the performance of the air defenses was improved, among other things, by a domestic project for the development of new ground control radars and the acquisition of the first anti-aircraft missiles for the Armed Forces. A decade of organizational changes in the Air Force included, in addition to the transfer of the Häme airfield, the transfer of the Air Force Technical School from Kauhava to Kuorevesi Hall. In addition, the Air Force headquarters moved from Helsinki to sheltered areas on Lake Luonetjärvi in 1972.

In the seventies, the construction of a new base at Satakunta Airport in Pori in Pirkkala was also started. In addition, the decade saw the beginning of the replacement of the school and exercise equipment purchased in the 1950s with new equipment suitable for the requirements of new anti-aircraft equipment.

The development of the Finnish Valmet Vinka elementary school machine, the so-called Leko-70 project, and the acquisition of a jet trainer following Fouga were launched. British-made Hawk was chosen to succeed Fouga. In the selection process, a careful evaluation process of the various aircraft candidates was conducted, and the lessons learned have also been used in the procurement of aircraft for decades to come.