Image: Yle

Popular media are full of zombie apocalypse plots lately. Major Jan Hanska, PhD and Captain Heikki Lanto have been pondering how such scenarios could be turned to advantage in preparing Finland’s military for possible conflict situations. The duo put forward their ideas in an article in the Finnish Military Periodical (Sotilasaikakauslehti).

According to Hanska a zombie scenario would allow military strategists to plan for situations such as a possible outbreak of disease - and help them to understand how different agencies and authorities would have to work in unison.

Hanska said these kinds of drills would better accommodate non-military authorities and allow them to participate in possible exercises. He pointed out that this would not necessarily be the case when defence forces plan manoeuvres based on traditional military threats.

“This kind of scenario is completely apolitical. There is no enemy that would be tied to any geographical location or any country. There would be no limits in terms of material,” he added.

However there could be drawbacks. The most obvious he said, is that the exercise might not be taken seriously. However he pointed out that troops in the United States have already engaged in military drills based on a zombie invasion.

The researcher and military officer observed that zombies are so far removed from current reality, routines and paradigms that formulating a plan to combat them would require acute analysis in key areas such as cooperation among different national authorities.

“We wanted to generate discussion inside the defence forces and the area of tactical training about how we could best learn from the ongoing Fingop planning process,” he concluded. FINGOP refers to standardised military guidance for operational planning, including special local demands.