The Intelligence Division of Defence Command ( fi, Pääesikunnan tiedusteluosasto, PE TIEDOS; ) is the unit in charge of Finnish

military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...

. Operational since the creation of the

Finnish Defence Forces The Finnish Defence Forces ( fi, Puolustusvoimat, sv, Försvarsmakten) are the military of Finland. The Finnish Defence Forces consist of the Finnish Army, the Finnish Navy and the Finnish Air Force. In wartime the Finnish Border Guard (whic ...

, its responsibility as a

military intelligence service The Military Intelligence Service ( ja, アメリカ陸軍情報部, ''America Rikugun Jōhōbu'') was a World War II U.S. military unit consisting of two branches, the Japanese American unit (described here) and the German-Austrian unit based ...

is to support the defence of Finland through information gathering and analysis with the

Finnish Defence Intelligence Agency The Finnish Defence Intelligence Agency (, PVTIEDL; ) is the combined signals (SIGINT), geospatial (GEOINT) and imagery intelligence (IMINT) agency of the Finnish Defence Forces. Operational since 2014, its responsibility is to support the defe ...

under its command. The division's predecessors have been organized within Defence Command of the

under multiple names and configurations—partly to conceal covert operations. The first iteration, the Information Office, was created in 1918 at the start of the

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War; . Other designations: Brethren War, Citizen War, Class War, Freedom War, Red Rebellion and Revolution, . According to 1,005 interviews done by the newspaper ''Aamulehti'', the most popular names were as follows: Civil W ...

Function

The Intelligence Division is self-statedly in charge of military intelligence in the Defence Forces and responsible for the use of intelligence capabilities. Its tasks include monitoring changes in the security environment, providing early warning of military and external threats, and

counter-intelligence Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or ot ...

—similar to the tasks its predecessors have performed. In a 2014 interview, Chief of Intelligence, then Brigadier General Harri Ohra-aho stated that the military gathers information according to Finnish and host country legislation with

signals In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

(SIGINT), imagery (IMINT),

geospatial Geographic data and information is defined in the ISO/TC 211 series of standards as data and information having an implicit or explicit association with a location relative to Earth (a geographic location or geographic position). It is also ca ...

(GEOINT) and open-source intelligence (OSINT) as well as through military attachés. Most information regarding the division or its predecessors is not public per Finnish law.

History

On 11 February 1918, in the early stages of the

, commander-in-chief of White Finland's military, General Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, appointed Lieutenant Isak Alfthan to command the Information Office () of Mannerheim's headquarters and start gathering

on the civil war enemy

Red Finland The Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (FSWR), more commonly referred to as Red Finland, was a self-proclaimed Finnish socialist state that ruled parts of the country during the Finnish Civil War of 1918. It was outlined on 29 January 1918 by t ...

as well as on Russian units. During the

Continuation War The Continuation War, also known as the Second Soviet-Finnish War, was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944, as part of World War II.; sv, fortsättningskriget; german: Fortsetzungskrieg. A ...

and

Lapland War During World War II, the Lapland War ( fi , Lapin sota; sv, Lapplandskriget; german: Lapplandkrieg) saw fighting between Finland and Nazi Germany – effectively from September to November 1944 – in Finland's northernmost region, Lapland. ...

, Intelligence Division was in charge of directing the four

long-range reconnaissance patrol A long-range reconnaissance patrol, or LRRP (pronounced "lurp"), is a small, well-armed reconnaissance team that patrols deep in enemy-held territory.Ankony, Robert C., ''Lurps: A Ranger's Diary of Tet, Khe Sanh, A Shau, and Quang Tri,'' revised ...

detachments (), intended to assault assets as well as disrupt supply and communications behind enemy lines. In July 1943, the detachments were reorganized as companies within

Detached Battalion 4 Detached Battalion 4 ( ()) was a special forces unit of the Finnish Army during the Continuation War and Lapland War, serving from July 1943 to November 1944. The battalion was founded under the Intelligence Division of Defence Command from the ...

, commanded by the Intelligence Division. The units conducted around 350 long-range reconnaissance patrols during wartime.

Utti Jaeger Regiment The Utti Jaeger Regiment ( fi, Utin Jääkärirykmentti, ()) is the Finnish Army training and development centre for special forces and helicopter operations in charge of the Army Special Forces Unit and the Special Forces Qualification Course. F ...

was established de facto in 1962 to mimic the special operations of Detached Battalion 4.

Notes and references

Notes

* As some of the early units mentioned do not have official English translations, Wikipedia editors have taken the liberty to translate them. * Due to intelligence documentation being destroyed or hidden and intelligence officers fleeing to Sweden during Operation Stella Polaris, material and research into Finnish military intelligence is scarce at points.

References

External links