Royal Marines have arrived in the Baltic Sea for Exercise Freezing Winds – Finland’s first major military exercise as a Nato member involving 30 ships and 4,000 personnel.

The training is specifically designed to prepare for operations in the Gulf of Finland and the Archipelago Sea, the latter encompassing around 80,000 islands.

Among the participants in Freezing Winds are two major Nato task forces: Standing Nato Maritime Group One and Standing Nato Mine Countermeasure Group One – which are both responsible for the security and protection of northern Europe’s many waterways.

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“This autumn’s main exercise is the first one that we will execute as a large Nato exercise in which also our Swedish partners will be strongly involved,” said Captain Juhapekka Rautava, the commander of the exercise.

“By training together, we will not only strengthen military capabilities, but also interoperability and our ability to work together.

“The large number of mine countermeasures vessels participating in the exercise is a demonstration of Nato’s interest in and commitment to the protection of underwater infrastructure,” Rautava added.

The exercise will involve Royal Marines participating alongside specialist troops from the Uusimaa Brigade and the US Marine Corps, performing waterborne operations along Finland’s coastline.

At the forefront of these operations is the amphibious ship RFA Mounts Bay, strategically positioned to land forces ashore swiftly for commando raids and covert missions.

The expertise of 4 Assault Squadron, a unit known for its skilled landing craft pilots adept at navigating challenging waterways, ensures the seamless delivery of UK Commando Force specialists to strategic locations along the jagged Finnish coast.

This orchestrated effort is part of the larger Littoral Response Group (North) (LRG) operations, a strategic initiative by the Royal Navy to swiftly deploy to key locations worldwide in response to evolving global events. The Royal Navy currently maintains two LRGs—North and South—with LRG South currently active in the Mediterranean while LRG North focuses its efforts in the Baltic region.

Major Adam Seaney, the Amphibious Operations Officer leading the 4 Assault Squadron boat group, said: “We are used to operating in the challenging and arduous conditions of the Baltic, having only recently returned from deployment there last summer on board HMS Albion.

 “This opportunity to deploy on Ex Freezing Winds on RFA Mounts Bay supporting LRG(N) operations as part of the Finnish-led exercise will be a new challenge that we are looking forward to. 

“The training with 148 Battery and Finnish Forces will be a new experience and help to prove the interoperability between the UK and one of the recent members to join Nato.” 

The Royal Navy has a longstanding history of collaboration with the Finnish Navy and Baltic forces in the Joint Expeditionary Force—a coalition of ten nations. Together, they aim to maintain stability and security in the North Atlantic, Baltic Sea, and the High North.

Weighing in at approximately 62 tonnes, Israel’s Namer heavy armoured personnel carrier (APC) is massive – but it is also seen as one of the world’s best-protected.

It has been developed for the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) after lessons learned in past conflicts, with an estimated 270 by 2021 having been delivered to the IDF.

Sam Cranny-Evans, an associate fellow from the defence and security think tank Rusi told Forces News that “the big difference between Namer and a conventional Western main battle tank is in the West we still haven’t really let go of the idea that a tank needs to be best protected from the front”.

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He added: “Any kind of additional protection around the sides is nice to have but not always essential.

“The Namer is designed to carry much more equal levels of protection around the entire vehicle. It’s designed to withstand a lot greater punishment from any angle that it is attacked.”

Mr Cranny-Evans added: “It probably means that maybe it’s a bit easier to penetrate a Namer than it is a frontal arc of a main battle tank, but it means you have to work quite hard from any angle to penetrate it.”

In the video above, Forces News take a closer look at Israel’s Namer.

It has been a sturdy servant of the British Army for more than 70 years.

The Land Rover has been a vital part of the force since it first came into service in 1949.

Simple, dependable and a workhorse of the British military, it’s a vehicle that still has a key role to play after all these years.

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Many other more sophisticated vehicles have come and gone in that time, but it remains a key part of the Army’s fleet of vehicles.

Major Donald Urquhart from 154 (Scottish) Regiment Royal Logistic Corps said: “They are used in liaison roles as communications vehicles, transport vehicles.

“Currently they are used very much in a training role for deploying and operations. On operations, we generally try and go for an armoured vehicle, so these are training platforms normally carrying radios and command posts.

“In summary why they’re good for the job currently, they’re very, very basic and straightforward. These vehicles are still very successful because they don’t have any electronics on them.

“There’s no electronic control unit so a very straightforward to fix and that’s probably the biggest single strength.”

The vehicle’s simplicity has been a big part of its longevity in service – something that can be fixed easily and is not too complicated.

However, the soldiers need to know what they are doing to use the Land Rover properly.

The Army tests the skills needed to use these vehicles to their full potential every year in Scotland.

For more than 30 years, Exercise Mudmaster has been putting the Land Rovers and their drivers through their paces.

Officer Cadet Rhona Duncan from Aberdeen Officer Training Corps said: “I’ve always been interested in Land Rovers from a young age.

“If you know it drives properly – it can go everywhere.

“The Mudmaster off-road driving exercise helps with learning all the gearings and when to use low-range, high-range, all the different gears.

“If you’re able to use them effectively and you’ve practised it before then you’ll be more likely to be able to carry out your operations effectively and you’ll be able to know when things might go wrong and mitigate that happening.”

The Land Rover was inspired by the military jeeps of the Second World War, but was initially designed for farming and industrial use.

But with some changes, these vehicles became a key part of the force and after seven decades of service they are still valued by the soldiers who use them today.

Lieutenant Tim Johnston from 157 (Welsh) Regiment RLC said: “They are a great platform for training. Great off-road and easy to repair. 

“All soldiers have been trained in basic training how to use the vehicle off-road and Mudmaster offers a great opportunity to put those skills to use and develop them further for operations.”

The Land Rover, with a few modifications over the years, has been a constant in the British Army.

It’s a simple and durable bit of kit that is difficult to replace – even after 74 years.