The Air Force Academy ( fi, Ilmasotakoulu, abbr. ''ILMASK''; sv, Luftkrigsskolan) is located at
Tikkakoski
Tikkakoski is a northernmost residential area of Jyväskylä, Finland, about north of the city centre. It has a population of 6,000.
The Jyväskylä Airport, Aviation Museum of Central Finland, and a Finnish Air Force
, colours ...
in
Jyväskylä
Jyväskylä () is a city and municipality in Finland in the western part of the Finnish Lakeland. It is located about 150 km north-east from Tampere, the third largest city in Finland; and about 270 km north from Helsinki, the capital of ...
,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
. The primary mission of the Air Force Academy is to train warfighting airmen who can carry out their missions even under most strenuous conditions. This includes conscripts and active duty personnel and special forces such as pilots, aircraft and helicopter mechanics, and air surveillance controllers. The Air Force Academy also trains conscripts for general military operations. While training is primarily geared to serve air base functions, a number of conscripts are trained for jobs in the control and reporting centres. The Air Force Academy comprises a headquarters and a Communication Systems Training Flight, Aircraft and Weapon Systems Training Flight, Reserve Non-Commissioned Officer Training School, and a Reserve Officer Training School.
Initial pilot training was formerly given in the Air Force Academy in Kauhava, but basic training was branched off as a separate unit and moved to Tikkakoski in 2005. At the same time, the Kauhava unit change its name into Training Air Wing and was later disbanded in 2014. The new unit in Tikkakoski retained the name Air Force Academy.
Logo history
The ''hakaristi'' (
swastika) is the insignia of the academy, taken into use before the
Nazis incorporated the swastika as their principal symbol. While the Finnish Air Force "quietly stopped using this unit emblem" in 2020,
the academy continues to use it as of September 2022.
See also
*
Valmet L-70 Vinka
The Valmet L-70 ''Vinka'' is a Finnish-designed piston-powered military basic trainer aircraft of the 1970s. A production run of 30 aircraft were built for the Finnish Air Force in the early 1980s, and although the type was not exported, it formed ...
References
External links
The Air Force AcademyThe Air Force Academy for conscripts
Finnish Air Force squadrons
Finnish Air Force
Jyväskylä
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