British troops are taking safety measures to avoid reindeer being blown up by howitzers during Nato Lapland military drills.
Thousands of troops are in Finland taking part in Nato‘s largest ever artillery exercise, Dynamic Front, with i joining soldiers deployed near Rovaniemi, the “official” hometown of Santa Claus, some 80 miles from the Russian border.
Shells launched by Finnish troops in previous exercises have killed reindeer after landing in herds of the semi-wild animals during live firing.
Farmers have been owed thousands of euros in compensation after livestock were killed accidentally during combat manoeuvres.
One ex-Finnish army officer revealed 47 reindeer were killed in one previous mortar salvo, with new safety procedures brought in as a result.
British Army Royal Artillery observation posts are checking herds haven’t strayed into the impact area when launching Archer howitzers during this month’s Arctic exercise.
Around 400 British soldiers are among 3,600 troops from 28 countries taking part in Dynamic Front in Finland, where the army has fired Archers for the first time in a live environment.
The US army has also been testing out it’s Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) in the multinational exercise that has seen units fire up to 100 rounds a day across the vast Rovajarvi firing range.
But the high-explosives projectiles hurtling around this Arctic region pose a risk to some of the 200,000 reindeer roaming the Lapland forests.
Exercise director Col Janne Mäkitalo said reindeer were the region’s biggest trade and base of the economy, along with tourism, and added that the army “respect reindeer a lot”.
“We always check the target areas before the exercise starts to not hit a single reindeer,” he said. “And if there is the single reindeer in the target area, the shooting would not start.
“We have placed these exercises in weeks during the year that there isn’t this herd gathering process going, [in consultation] with those who own the herds of reindeer, just to avoid any major problems to this trade and profession.
“Sometimes by accident, even though we have checked everything, we just find a dead reindeer in the target area, and that is a payday for the owner of that deer, because we will compensate and pay for the loss of that reindeer.
“And if there is a herd of tens and tens of reindeer, of course, it causes troubles for the owner, but he will get this compensation.”
Reindeer herding is the main source of income for many Sámi indigenous people in Lapland.
One retired Finnish officer, Maj Pasi Veikkolainen, said herders used to be paid €500 per animal killed, and recalled dozens of reindeer dying in one round of mortar explosions.
“When I was young there was one mortar company who shot 12 mortars,” he said. “The grenades were in the air and then the reindeer come.
“It was 47 reindeer at once. They went just in the middle of the target. That was in the 1990s.
“With exercises nowadays, it’s an accident — it’s not every year, but sometimes the target is in that kind of place where you think you can see it all, but there’s a hill, and the reindeer come from behind that hill.
“When the 47 reindeer died in that one mortar company hit, then we changed our safety rules and where you put the target.”
With temperatures hovering at -8°C it’s unseasonably warm in Lapland as two Swedish artillery crews launch a volley of rounds from their Archer 155mm guns.
The same self-propelling weapons, which can pound targets more than 30 miles away, are being used by the British Army in Lapland after 16 were received last September to replace AS90s sent to Ukraine.
The commanding officer of the British forces, Lt-Col Ben Baldwinson from the 19th Royal Artillery regiment, said he had been working side by side with Swedish allies operating the system.
British troops operating the 33-tonne wheeled-weapon have been to Sweden to practise driving in sub-zero conditions, with Swedish mechanics advising how to maintain the gun.
“Lots of our troops train in Norway and do the Arctic warfare training,” he said.
“But for us, this is something new as a region, and it’s been a huge opportunity for us as soldiers to understand how we can fight and survive in this kind of environment, but also put the Archer gun through its paces.
“This gun fires a lot quicker than our old AS-90 gun. It’s able to switch targets. We can programme the gun so it can fire at one target and then move to the second target.”
Pre-programmed operations can rain down several rounds at different trajectories to take out enemy targets in shoot-and-scoot missions.
“In the modern battlefield, looking at what’s happening in Ukraine, being able to move very, very quickly, so we’re less easily identified, keeps the gun more survivable,” Lt-Col Baldwinson said.
A mixture of camouflage netting, thermal sheeting, and foliage to shield the artillery unit changes the thermal properties making it harder to spot by the enemy.
There has also been a range of briefings from Finnish troops about operating in the new environment.
“One of the particular elements for the observation posts is to identify if there are any reindeer here on the impact area. And we do actually stop firing,” Lt-Col Baldwinson said.
“So there’s, a lot of safety precautions, also driving and manoeuvering around the area. There’s a lot of wildlife.
“It’s just common sense, to be safe when we’re driving and look out for the wildlife, particularly moose and reindeer. And I don’t want to annoy Father Christmas.”
Major Ronnie Drammeh, chief of operations for the US army’s 436 field artillery regiment, was commanding a unit who had just launched a salvo of rockets from an M270 Alpha System.
“We have very rigorous safety checks to ensure that we don’t destroy any wildlife, we don’t kill any wildlife, and we are absolutely safe,” he said.
“So yes, no reindeer were killed during this exercise, I promise you that.”
