Category: Finland

BAE Systems awarded 40 Mk4 Naval Gun contract for Finland

BAE Systems will produce and deliver Bofors 40 Mk4 Naval Guns for the Finnish Navy and its Hamina Class Squadron 2000 fast attack craft, under a contract with Patria, the prime contractor for the vessel’s mid-life upgrade and overhaul program.

With this contract, Finland adds the 40 Mk4 to its installed base of BAE Systems naval guns, including both previous versions of 40-millimeter (mm) L/70 systems and 57-mm Mk3 systems.

The low weight and compact Bofors 40 Mk4 gun system with its high rate of fire and ability to switch between optimized ammunition types – including the intelligent 40mm 3P all-target ammunition – provides high survivability and tactical freedom at all levels of conflict.

BAE 40mm 02

In addition to Finland, more than 10 countries currently use BAE Systems Bofors 40-mm guns.

You can read BAE Systems press release here

 

Special Report : Finland; Preparing for change…

Finland is gearing up for the massive defence procurement which is including army, navy and air force platforms and supportive auxillary combat systems.

It is said that this procurement programme is worth several billion euros. And this is a major-step change for a nation after it has been allocated an average of just %1.54 of GDP to defence since 1988.

So Russia is heating up all the waters and the borders in the world and there is still a warm Ukrainian situation on the table as an example. The Finns are considering that the defence landscape in their region has changed and they feel more threatened now than they did before.

As a part of this procurement programme The Defence Forces has launched a project to buy surface combatants to replace the Navy’s capabilities which will become outdated in the 2020s. The Project was named Squadron 2020 also known as Laivue 2020.

You can find some related links below for the details of the procurement programme and  Squadron 2020 Project :

Link-1 : Short Brief Dr.Gareth Evans on Global Defence Technology 

Link-2 : Squadron 2020 introduction from Finland Defence Forces Command

Link-3 : Squadron 2020 File from Navaltoday.com

Link-4 : Looking for Squadron 2020 Combat System from Naval-technology.com

Link-5 : Squadron 2020 Story from Corporalfrisk.com