Image: Vesa Vaarama / Yle

Finland’s Air Force has deployed hardware at different airports across the country as part of efforts to step up air response readiness and beef up general preparedness, said Defence Force communications chief Mika Kalliomaa.

Kalliomaa said that one of the airfields being prepped is Helsinki-Vantaa international airport but would not elaborate on which other locations are involved.

“They vary depending on our duty requirements. Equipment is also being moved according to need. It’s part of beefing up our operations so we are able to react in different directions,” he added.

Earlier Friday afternoon Yle reported sightings of Hornet jets from different sources in the capital city area. Kalliomaa confirmed that some Finnish Hornets have flown sorties in the area.

Sweden also boosts readiness

The Swedish Paper Svenska Dagbladet also reported Friday evening that Sweden has upped its military preparedness, with the government citing the serious course of developments in Ukraine.

The paper said the Swedish Defence Force had announced the state of readiness in a brief statement on its website.

Finnish Defence Force officials said their enhanced readiness was based on a recent spate of airspace incursions by Russian aircraft. Since last Saturday there have been three such incidents in Finnish skies.