Finland-Frontier Guard

Frontier Guards in bivouac during winter patrol
Courtesy General Headquarters, Finnish Defense Forces

Ski troops towed by a Swedish-built Bandvagn 206 multipurpose tracked vehicle
Courtesy General Headquarters, Finnish Defense Forces

The Frontier Guard (Rajavartiolaitos--RVL) was considered an elite force, organized, even in peacetime, along military lines into companies and platoons; its personnel held military-type ranks. The RVL was established in 1919, and it was placed under the Ministry of Interior. The Coast Guard (sometimes called the Sea Guard), dating from 1930, was also under the Ministry of Interior and was made part of the RVL in 1944. In a time of crisis or war, authorities could integrate the entire RVL, or parts of it, into the Defense Forces. The peacetime tasks of the RVL were to guard and to patrol national boundaries; to work with the police in maintaining public order and safety in frontier and coastal areas; to prevent and, if necessary, to investigate frontier incidents; and, together with the Customs Office, to exercise customs control. The RVL patrolled a special frontier zone of three kilometers on land and four kilometers at sea along the Finnish-Soviet border. A permit was required to enter this zone.

The personnel complement of the RVL, as of 1988, was about 3,500; an additional 1,000 conscripts were assigned to it. Coast Guard personnel numbered 600; no conscripts served with the Coast Guard. The RVL was divided into four districts, and the Coast Guard was divided into three. Each district was composed of three or four frontier companies, a ranger or commando company, and a headquarters platoon. Actual patrolling of the border was conducted by the frontier companies, which consisted of two to four frontier platoons. Each platoon manned one to three RVL stations. The ranger companies, which served as training units for the conscripts, were located at the district headquarters. Only career personnel participated in regular boundary patrolling. A separate Air Patrol Command was equipped with Agusta Bell Jet Ranger light helicopters and Aerospatiale Super Puma medium helicopters, the latter with an antisubmarine warfare role in wartime.

Basic training of the RVL was conducted at the Frontier Guard School at Immola in the municipality of Imatra and at the Coast Guard School at Otaniemi. NCOs received their training mainly at the Defense Forces' NCO school; officer training was carried out at the Military Academy and at other military schools. Conscripts received their ranger training in the districts where they were assigned. Conscripts admitted to the RVL were required to be in top physical condition, and they were usually residents of border areas. Opportunities offered to RVL conscripts for training as reserve NCOs and officers were similar to those offered in the Defense Forces (see The Armed Forces , this ch.).

Under wartime conditions the RVL would be organized into special Frontier Jaeger Battalions. Their mobilized strength would be about 11,500. Their tasks would be to operate against key targets in the enemy's rear and to defend against enemy airborne or other penetration of Finnish rear areas. The Coast Guard did not have a reserve component, but several of its larger patrol craft had a submarine tracking capability, and they could be rapidly converted for antisubmarine warfare and minelaying and minesweeping operations.

Each Coast Guard district consisted of a headquarters platoon, three Coast Guard areas (each comprising two to six Coast Guard stations), and Coast Guard vessels. Its fleet consisted of 7 offshore patrol craft of between 135 and 700 tons displacement and 53 smaller coastal patrol craft.

Data as of December 1988