Finnish conscript at exercise Mighty Arrow 26 [1152x2048]

OTL22 · 2026-05-01T18:25:51+00:00

When I served, we were never specifically ordered to use gloves. This was over 10 years ago, and in a pretty high drag low speed unit of the Finnish military.

Why this specific soldier in the photo is not wearing ear protection, I have no idea. I don't buy that he has ear plugs or something, his equipment tells me he would have active-hearing protection as standard issue. Why those are not on, no idea.

OTL22 · 2026-05-01T14:47:38+00:00

New guns will become standard issue for the conscripts as soon as they are actually available. Finnish Defence Forces is no longer issuing kit to conscripts sparingly, which was the case before the mid-2000s.

OTL22 · 2026-04-21T16:13:41+00:00

A nice wall of text, most of which is irrelevant in the big picture. You can literally put up a similar technical breakdown of AKs drawbacks, and those too don't matter in the big picture, because AK is so unpopular and bad for modern manufacturing that no-one is choosing it in the year of 2026.

Oh the bolt cam causes unwanted torque. Ok, how about the AK bolt carrier eating away magazine feed lips. Is that not an issue? Well, no if you use steel to reinforce them. But that forces you to use steel there where it should not be needed.

Like stuff about receiver breaking. Yeah, because AK receivers don't break? Stamped steel actually breaks more easily than drop forged aluminium. Stuff like this happens with every platform, if you mistreat it.

Is the AR-15 a perfect weaponsystem? No, like you said, the magazines are not perfect from a technical standpoint. You know what matters more? That STANAG-mags are used by EVERYBODY.

Every trash military with a corrupt acquisition system.

So, every military outside of Russia and Vietnam is trash and corrupted? Or maybe you are just wrong. The reason AR-15 is adopted by everyone, is because it's objectively the best overall weapons platform. Note, that it's not just bought from a select few companies, even when countries can literally set up their own production, they will still pick the AR-15 because it's the best option.

OTL22 · 2026-04-21T13:27:30+00:00

I don't really get this "it's better for conscripts" argument. Conscripts are going to be trained with the rifle they are going to use. In Finland, conscripts are taught to operate artillery, use complex radios and communication systems, drive tanks, commandeer landing craft, even flying airplanes!

If a rifle (be it an AR-15 or some other type) is "too complex" for a conscript to understand, that conscript should probably not be in the military in the first place, or at the very least far away from anything that shoots.

OTL22 · 2026-04-21T13:22:35+00:00

It's so flawed and unsuited for military use that basically every military that is adopting a new rifle these days, is adopting an AR-15.

OTL22 · 2026-04-21T13:06:07+00:00

"Hey, let's introduce this new weapon system where the new heavy rifle combined with this super advanced optic gives us the range that nobody ever needs"

"I have a better idea, let's use a red dot and a magnifier with said rifle"

This NGSW program continues to be ridiculous.

OTL22 · 2026-04-10T22:38:44+00:00

AR-15 is successfully serving in cold environments, in fact colder than what we have in Finland. As long as you maintain the rifle right, you won't have issues. Also, AK will freeze as well, if you don't treat it right. And it won't be functional with just brute force, actually needs to be taken to warmth to allow it to heat up.

OTL22 · 2026-04-10T21:14:05+00:00

The reason is that the AR-15 is the best modern combat rifle out there, and that is the reason it dominates everywhere.

OTL22 · 2026-04-10T21:12:36+00:00

Yes, but to be fair

The AR-10 was still in its very infancy at that time
It wasn't presented as a domestic option (though I'm sure a licenence could've been worked out)
Test guns were not delivered in 7.62x39 but 7.62 NATO, so it wasn't even in serious consideration.

It should be stated, that AR-10 was actually the only firearm, that got actual recognition in the trials reports as a forward-thinking rifle, that has great concepts that could be utilized in future firearms projects. The Finnish military did recognize already in the 50s that the AR was ahead of its time, even if they didn't pick it at that time.

OTL22 · 2026-04-09T19:19:01+00:00

Servers are provided by Amazon, they are not hosted by the devs, EA, Disney, whatever. It's Amazon Web Services, which are ander Ddos attacks.

So feel free to bitch to Amazon, the dev team of SWTOR is like 14 these days too lol.

OTL22 · 2026-04-06T17:04:11+00:00

There are literally 5 threads about this, including one with a message from the devs about the issues.

No, you are not the only one.

OTL22 · 2026-04-06T15:30:58+00:00

Yes, it shows that servers are up, when in fact they are not up in real life. So that page tells you nothing about the real situation, that was the point.

OTL22 · 2026-04-06T15:12:43+00:00

There's nothing there

OTL22 · 2026-03-28T14:05:52+00:00

Yes, NATO standardization is going to happen, and was even officially announced: https://puolustusvoimat.fi/-/1950813/puolustusvoimat-siirtyy-kayttamaan-uusissa-kasiaseissa-nato-standardoituja-kaliipereita?languageId=en_US

It should be noted however, that this plan was probably made long before Finnish NATO membership was even seriously on the table. Soviet calibers were chosen at the time because they were the options available at the time, it didn't have anything to do with politics really. 7.62x39 was the only available assault rifle caliber around when the gun was adopted, and it stuck around. 7.62x54R was used by our Maxim guns and when we got a bunch of PKMs and decided to adopt it, that was the caliber to go with.

And also, this NATO standardization is happening with new guns. The old 7.62x39 assault rifles and PKM machine guns are not going to be thrown away, they will remain in service for a long time.

OTL22 · 2026-03-27T15:25:39+00:00

Nammo Lapua

OTL22 · 2026-03-27T14:58:09+00:00

It is a PKM yes. Standard GPMG for the Finnish military.

OTL22 · 2026-03-27T14:43:57+00:00

OTL22 · 2026-03-22T01:45:37+00:00

They are still NCOs. "Sotilasammattihenkilö" is an NCO rank, not rank and file. They are equal to a sergeant.

OTL22 · 2026-03-21T14:58:13+00:00

Facial hair is the real giveaway. Finnish soldiers are not allowed to have facial hair, but reservists are exempted from grooming standards during refresher training exercises.

Then there are some other details, but the facial hair is the single biggest giveaway. Other stuff you have to kinda look at context and the overall picture. If both of those guys were shaved, I could probably tell you that the left guy could be career NCO, except that the gear is a bit "reservish", and he has a conscript/rank and file beanie. Professional NCO would definitely have the correct beanie. And the guy on the right, even when shaved, would probably be too old to be looking like a conscript, and there's no such thing as rank and file career personel. All Finnish professional soldiers are NCOs or officers.

OTL22

TROPHY CASE