Finnish Government cripples Finnish Defense Force with cost cut´s.

[Kagemusha]

Today a large scale spending cut program aimed towards Finnish Defense Force was laid out by the Government. Garrisons aimed to be eliminated include:

Training Air Wing, Aircraft and Weapon Systems Training Wing of Finnish Air Force.

North Karelia Brigade, the Engineer Regiment in Keuruu, the Häme Regiment and the Kotka Coastal Battalion of Finnish Army

A large number of brigades and regiments are to be merged by the end of 2014 which will hamper the FDF further. The entire reserve component of FDF will shrink from 350 000 men to 230 000 men, so one third of wartime troops will evaporate.

These cuts will effectively cripple the training and maintaining of Finnish Air Force and cutting off vital parts of the entire FDF.
Also these almost 1 billion initial cuts will lower the Finnish military spending to less then 2% of GDP, which is the limit for NATO members. So while we are practically loosing our ability to defend our own area thus rendering our neutrality into nothing. We will not be viable for NATO membership either.

To me this is beyond idiotic and i would be very interested to know. What kind of vision the Government has to Defend our area. We can use billions to support Greece while they use billions to buy new armour for their Army, while we cant maintain our own armed defence forces anymore.

Here is an article concerning the affair in English from Helsingin Sanomat:

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Sig.../1135270359160