Lake NATO is far from a lake, and far from being at the forefront of the mind of most people.

❤️

Anyone familiar with Küstenflieger by Adam Thompson? Worth a read?

The Atlantic article forgets to inform the reader that SAMP/T actually had overtaken Patriot as the favorite for quite some time and tries to imply the pausing from the US side led to the French getting the 🇩🇰order. Nice try…. H/t @bjoernm.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

Hmm… A bit though to identify the version in question, but to me it looks like an Mi-8MTV with the early clamshell doors.

Interesting proposal to give Finns the opportunity to study at the Swedish Armed Forces’ Interpreter School - an elite institution with an alumni list to rival few within the overall Swedish military intelligence community.

Pääsin kokeilemaan (tai lähes, MPK:n versio). Vaikken mikään aseintoilija olekaan, niin aika hieno laite! Lättare än RK62, skjuter bra, och är inställbar.. t.o.m. jag tyckte de här är tydligt roligare att använda. To me, a rifle is "that lump of metal that needs cleaning". But even I'm impressed.

Honestly, the 1,5% was always just to get it to the nice 5%. What’s happening with the 3,5%, that’s what’s important (and also addressed in the article).

While it’s nice to see Stubb state the obvious, I do still feel like Finnish politicians are avoiding answering this question when it comes to the follow-up of if that means Finnish reservists could be sent somewhere else to fight for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of another ally.

And yet, and yet, and yet, still such a widespread determination not to understand that you cannot protect something from Russia without being ready and willing to fight for it.

Sweden and Germany teaming up for a joint fighter? I'm happy to support it just because the unbuilt Saab-MBB J 37X Snabel-Viggen is one of my favourite What Ifs 😎

I have always felt the talk about the Saudis being just a phone call to Islamabad away from the bomb were a bit overexaggerated. Seems I was (or at least, am now) wrong ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Great to be back as a student once more, even if just for two days, as I got to take part in the Continuation Course for the Regional Defence Course LSSAVI J20/2025 earlier this week. Some really interesting lectures, and big thanks to both organisers LSSAVI and PORPR!

”Förvirrad men på ett högre plan” (confused but at a higher level) is probably the greatest compliment you can give a non-fiction writer (might be applicable to certain parts of fiction as well) 😎

Please enjoy this sculpture of the Prince of Wales and his horse made entirely of butter, courtesy of the Canadians at the British Empire Exhibition, 1924. I will not be taking any questions at this time.

"Surviving India’s glacial yet intense procurement process is the next hurdle for both the P75(AS) and P75I programs."

I've seen reactions along lines of "They're upset because what happens to others now happened to them", and sure, racism is a factor in ICE-raids, but fact is a high-tech company investing in US only to see their workers arrested is different compared to farm workers without papers being rounded up.

Escorting Russian drones as they detour over Romania before hitting Ukraine. Escorting instead of stopping the threat. Yes, as Cyrille writes, we have lost our minds.

The interesting part is that my impression is the public in most western countries doesn't really get hung up on admissions of getting things wrong either. When someone just says "Yeah, we got that one wrong", the discussion usually moves on quicker than if you try to explain away poor decisions.

“They are 🇨🇳 People’s Armed Police commander Wang Chunning; rocket force disciplinary chief Wang Zhibin; Zhang Lin, head of the Logistics Support Department under the Central Military Commission; and Gao Daguang, political commissar of the CMC’s Joint Logistics Support Force.”

Such a shame! Couldn’t have happened to a nicer country… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A free hint for anyone wanting to use historical events as metaphors: double-check that the historical event does actually conjure up the images you are looking for before choosing them (which, I mean, might be the case here, but you never know 🙃)

The "Super Weapon" as the Norwegian press described it is apparently the QUICKSINK - a dedicated anti-ship version of the JDAM, which is a really interesting low-cost quick adaptation of the weapon significantly increasing the lethality of standard bomb warheads against ships.

Watch out for this shady misinformer. ☝️

As usual with breaking news, keep calm and wait - the Polish drone case is serious, and things point to it indeed being a conscious escalation by the Kremlin. HOWEVER, this is not (yet at least) WWIII. Shooting down even manned aircraft has happened a number of times, without it escalating further.

He notes this is the first time a sitting minister of defense from Japan has given an address in Korea.

The Oslo-class is also a good example of the growth in size of frigates. The Oslo-class at 97 m LoA and 2,100 t full load was replaced by the current Fridtjof Nansen-class of 134 m LoA and 5,300 tons, which in turn will be replaced by the Type 26 'City'-class at 150 m and 8,000 t.

In a few hours time you'll be able to see me discuss HAV Dolphin and hybrid operations in YLE Österbotten's streamed discussion. The language will be Swedish this time around.

A somewhat meagre and rainy public event at KINETIC STRONGHOLD 25 at least offered the most important things - a large green armoured vehicle and a nice dog 😊

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy... "Controversial" in this case is shorthand for - to quote the article - "convicted of rape, attempted murder and a string of other serious crimes"

There is truth to this, which is something that has been raised about the air/drone strikes in foreign countries for decades. While this is definitely new ground and a very slippery slope, if you want to prove that under US law this is something different, you might be fighting an uphill battle.

The Narva trap. Constantly drumming a threat may lead to an exaggerated perception of vulnerability.

Interesting - Finnish police is investigating someone selling a Russian tactical vest captured in Ukraine as a potential minor war crime. It is unclear to me what exactly constitutes the crime, assume it might be either seen as Ukrainian state property or looting an item from the individual soldier?

Look who’s practiced air-to-air refuelling from an A400M! Granted will be a less relevant capability for the Finnish Air Force once the F-35A arrives, but the Atlas has some other nifty features as well.

🇵🇱⚖️🇪🇺 Calendar alert: I might be leaving for vacation, but this Thursday the CJEU will hand out a judgment in one of those Polish rule of law cases with a truly wild factual background that requires solid knowledge of Poland to understand. Crossword magazines are no laughing matter on the Vistula!

This will make things really interesting, as exactly what constitutes 'building a warship' is somewhat open to discussion (Design? Steel cutting? Welding? Block assembly? Fitting out? Production of sub-systems?), and the workshare setup offered will look as different as the vessels themselves.

The Constellation-class is a mess, and while I fail to see Trump having helped, the end result would likely have been the same with any president in the White House (OTOH, if Trump didn’t have any impact at all, the political leadership in Oslo are frankly stupid).

Two weapons stations have been added to the fuselage under the intakes, this is most likely where AASM guided bombs are carried. Looks like 1700L RPL-501/502 external tanks and are painted in national colours for visual IFF. 2/

It seems that while I personally isn’t on any of the lists of hostile persons in Russia (or ”Roll of honour”, as @keirgiles.bsky.social says), my Alma Mater the IBO has now been listed as ’undesirable’. That deserves to be commemorated 😎 www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/08/25/r...

The two first Patria 6x6 APCs will be delivered to the Bornholm Regiment on 1 September. Talk about short time from flash to bang. Initial sign up for CAVS 5 months ago and agreement signed 14 July…! (Last week’s photo shoot)

Sako has unveiled its new Arctic Rifle Generation (ARG) combat rifles, which as it happens already is in service. In parallel, M4A1 has entered Swedish use, and we have an update on the Finnish timeline and a new LMG/GPMG incoming.

Western navies better pay attention.

Historically accurate

This is the kind of stuff the words ’blockbuster trade’ were made for 😆

Why make it complicated 😂

This number is too low, with e.g. Finland and Estonia also having stopped a number of different kinds of mail shipments.

As someone reading a lot of niche literature in English and regularly travelling to Denmark, this creates ideas not unlike those of happy southerners travelling to Tallinn for cheap alcohol 😎

nEgOtIaTiOn

When your employees are also content creators, the line between “authentic storytelling” and “massive infosec risk” disappears faster than you can say FYP. Case in point: the LAX employee fired over a “day in the life” TikTok feat her work badge, pin & the exact schedule for carrying shop cash.

This is a wonderful account (and for Canada’s sake, let’s hope McCaffrey has a healthy season 😅).