The Lapland Air Wing (, abbr. ''LapLsto''; ) is the peace-time

Finnish Air Force The Finnish Air Force (FAF or FiAF; ; ) is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. Its peacetime tasks are airspace surveillance, identification flights, and production of readiness formations for wartime conditions. The Finnish Air ...

unit responsible for the protection of the airspace of northern

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. The headquarters of the air wing is located in the present-day province of Lapland, at

Rovaniemi Airport Rovaniemi Airport () is the second busiest airport in Finland after Helsinki-Vantaa, as measured by the number of passengers and landings. It is located in Rovaniemi, Finland, about north of Rovaniemi city centre. The Arctic Circle crosses t ...

. The Lapland Air Command was founded in 1973, when the Tavastia Air Command was moved to

Rovaniemi Rovaniemi ( , ; ; ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Lapland (Finland), Lapland. It is located near the Arctic Circle in the northern interior of the country. The population of Rovaniemi is approximately , while the Rovaniemi su ...

. The unit was officially renamed into the Lapland Air Command in 1974. It was equipped with

Saab Draken The Saab 35 Draken (; ''The Kite'', ambiguous with ''The Dragon'') is a Swedish fighter-interceptor developed and manufactured by Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget (SAAB) between 1955 and 1974. Development of the Saab 35 Draken started in 1948 as ...

fighters. The wing was established due to the increased importance of airspace in

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

Europe. The

Soviet Navy The Soviet Navy was the naval warfare Military, uniform service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy made up a large part of the Soviet Union's strategic planning in the event of a conflict with t ...

had large installations on the

Kola peninsula The Kola Peninsula (; ) is a peninsula in the extreme northwest of Russia, and one of the largest peninsulas of Europe. Constituting the bulk of the territory of Murmansk Oblast, it lies almost completely inside the Arctic Circle and is border ...

, while

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

had a large number of aircraft in northern Norway. Both sides often held large wargames nearby. In the early 2000s, the wing was equipped with

F-18 Hornet The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather supersonic, twin-engine, carrier-capable, multirole combat aircraft, designed as both a fighter and attack aircraft (hence the F/A designation). Designed by McDonnell Douglas and North ...

fighters, the first were received in January 1999, and operative readiness was obtained in 2000. At the same time, all Drakens were retired. The Wing's main duty is to guard and defend the air space, as well as to support the land forces. The wing trains conscripts for aerial surveillance, and for general service and support for the fighter flights. The Lapland Air Defence Battalion is also located at the base. The Fighter Squadron 11 is the operational unit of the Lapland Air Wing. In 2023 the English name for Lapland Air Command was changed to Lapland Air Wing along with the two other Air Commands.

Organization

* Headquarters * 5th Control and Reporting Centre * Fighter Squadron 11 * Aircraft Maintenance Squadron * Communications Flight * Logistics Flight

External links

Lapland Air Wing
{{Finnish Defence Forces units Military units and formations of the Finnish Air Force Rovaniemi