Finnish Navy The Finnish Navy ( , ) is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces . The Navy employs 2 , 300 people and about 4 , 300 conscript s are trained each year . Finnish Navy vessels are given the ship prefix " FNS " simply short for " Finnish Navy Ship " and it is not used in Finnish language contexts . The Finnish Navy also includes coastal forces and coastal artillery . Organization . The current Commander - in - Chief of the Navy is Rear Admiral Veli - Jukka Pennala . The navy is organized into two naval commands . The navy also includes the Nyland Brigade , where coastal jaeger s are trained . The Nyland Brigade is also the only Swedish language unit in the country and it carries on the traditions and battle - honours of the Nyland Regiment from the Swedish Army . Mobilization Strength . Total of 31 , 500 personnel History . During the Swedish era , the Finnish Gulf saw many battles between the Swedish and Russian fleets . Many of the Swedish naval bases were located in present - day Finland and many sailors came from Finland ( see Archipelago Fleet ) . During the Russian rule ( 1809 – 1917 ) an entirely Finnish Navy unit , named " Suomen Meriekipaasi " was defending the Finnish coast , alongside the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy . The " Meriekipaasi " participated in the Crimean War , albeit mostly with on - shore duties . The " Meriekipaasi " also manned the coastal batteries at the Santahamina Island during the siege of fortress Viapori in Helsinki . The ships the " Meriekipaasi " operated included the steam frigates " Rurik " and " Kalevala " , named after the Finnish national epic . These ships would later serve in the Russian Pacific Fleet ) . Independent Finland . The first ships that the independent Finnish Navy obtained were a mix of obsolete vessels left behind by the Russians during the Finnish Civil War and vessels , who hadn ' t been able to make the winter voyage to Kronstadt as the Russian Navy retreated from German forces . Thus , the Finnish Navy of the late 1910s and early 1920 ' s consisted of some gunboats ( " Klas Horn " , " Matti Kurki " , " Turunmaa " , and " Karjala " ) , 6 " S " - class torpedo boats , 8 " C " - class torpedo boats , 1 minelayer ( " Louhi " ) , several minesweepers , and 5 " T " - class minelaying boats . In addition to the warships , the Russians also left behind numerous other types of vessels . Additionally , the Germans handed over two netlayers ( " Hämeenmaa " and " Uusimaa " ) to the Finnish Navy , and these two ships formed the core of the Finnish Navy until the coastal defense ships were commissioned . With the Treaty of Tartu , Finland had to return some of the equipment they had operated earlier . This equipment included 3 " S " - class torpedo boats ( " S3 " , " S4 " and " S6 " ) , the minesweepers " Altair " , " Mikula " , " MP 7 " , " MP 11 " , " Ahvola " , " T 12 " , fifteen tugs , 4 smaller transports and 54 motorboats . Finland lost 3 more ships ( the torpedo boats " C 1 " , " C2 " and " C3 " ) in supporting the British operations against Soviets in the Baltic Sea . The three vessels were ordered to stay until the sea froze over , and were damaged beyond repair by the ice . The last remaining " C " - class torpedo boats was placed in reserve after this incident . In 1927 , after years of wrangling with various plans for how to modernize the navy , and partly due to the loss of the torpedo boat " S2 " in heavy seas in October 1925 , the Parliament of Finland approved a plan to build two coastal defence ship s ( " Panssarilaiva " in Finnish ) , as well as four submarine s . Motor torpedo boats were also acquired both from Britain , as well as from domestic sources . New minesweepers were also constructed . The training ship " Suomen Joutsen " was also acquired . World War II . The Strength of the Finnish Navy at the beginning of World War II was limited . Some of the planned ships had not yet been constructed and wartime constraints on the economy prolonged ship building times . The Finnish Navy operated the following vessels in the Baltic Sea : On Lake Ladoga , the Finns operated : The navy also had several auxiliary warship s , ice - breakers and patrol boats from the Coast Guard . Winter War . When the Winter War broke out the Finnish Navy moved to occupy the de - militarized Åland Islands and to protect merchant shipping . In the first month of the war , battles between Soviet ships and Finnish coastal batteries were fought at Hanko , Finland , Utö and Koivisto . At Koivisto , as well as at Hanko the batteries forced Soviet battleships to retire with damage . Finnish efforts to use submarines ( " Vesikko " and " Saukko " ) to sink Soviet capital ships failed . In December 1939 the ice became so thick that only the ice - breakers could still move . The two coastal defence ships were moved to the harbour in Turku where they were used to strengthen the air - defences of the city . They remained there for the rest of the war . Continuation War . Before the Continuation War five more torpedo boats were ordered from Italy . The base that the Soviets had acquired after the Winter War at the Hanko Peninsula divided the areas where the Finnish Navy would operate in two . This included the coastal artillery positions at Russarö and Osmussaar , which guarded the minefields blocking the entrance to the Eastern Gulf of Finland . Large mine fields were laid down in cooperation with the German Kriegsmarine when the war began . The coastal defence ships bombarded the Soviet base at Hanko until the Soviets evacuated Hanko in December 1941 . Between 1941 – 1945 some 69 , 779 mines and mine sweeping obstacles were laid in the Gulf of Finland by Finnish , Soviet and German naval forces . The Soviet Navy laid 16 , 179 mines and 2 , 441 mine sweeping obstacles , the Finnish navy 6 , 382 mines , and the German navy ' s vessels , submarines and aircraft laid some 45 , 000 mines , of which 3 , 000 were magnetic mines . The last mine sweeping season was held in 1957 , but the mine danger continued for some 10 more years , and there are still hundreds of World War II - era mines in the Baltic Sea . The greatest loss of the Finnish Navy occurred on September 13 , 1941 when the " Ilmarinen " ran into a mine and sank . 271 sailors lost their lives and only 132 were rescued . Most of the survivors later served in the Lake Onega flotilla , using old captured ships , including a steam engined paddlewheeler . In 1942 the main focus of the war at sea was on the anti - submarine warfare . Finnish and German naval forces tried to prevent Soviet submarines from gaining access to the Baltic Sea . However , the mine barrier had proven to be insufficient to completely stop Soviet submarines activities . The Soviet subs sank 18 ships , seven of which were Finnish . 12 Soviet submarines were also sunk - three by Finnish submarines . The next step in submarine warfare was to completely block the Gulf of Finland with anti - submarine nets between Naissaar and Porkkala . This was done immediately after the ice cover melted on the sea . That barrier with its accompanying minefields effectively contained Soviet naval vessels to the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland until the autumn of 1944 , when the Soviets were able to use Finnish coastal seaways to circumvent the barrier . In Spring 1942 Finnish forces captured the island of Gogland . In July 1942 the Soviets made an attempt to occupy the small island of Sommers in the Gulf of Finland . The Soviets lost several smaller vessels ( patrol and torpedo boats ) together with 128 men . 102 Soviet soldiers were taken prisoner . During 1943 the navy received 14 new torpedo boats which were used to replace the old pre - war ones . In 1944 the Soviets launched a major offensive against Finland , during which the navy fought in support of Finnish land forces the Gulf of Vyborg . In the end the ships were forced to pull out . Lapland War . In September 1944 , the military operations against Germany started . The main focus was in the north , the Lapland War , but the Germans also tried to capture Suursaari in an operation named " Tanne Ost " . The attack was repulsed . During the battle , Finnish motor torpedo boats sank several German vessels . The last action of the Finnish Navy was during the amphibious landing of troops from Oulu in Tornio . The Finnish gunboats successfully shelled German batteries , which had posed serious threat for the transport ships , while their anti - aircraft batteries defended the convoy from German air attacks . The navy also hunted German U - boats in the Baltic , laying its last mines of the war while doing this . After the Finnish - Soviet armistice , the Finnish Navy was ordered to participate in the demanding mine clearance operation . The operation lasted until 1950 . There were many casualties among the clearance crews . The Cold War era . The war time fleet was replaced in the 1950s and 1960s . Due to the Finland ' s neutrality she tried to balance her purchases of equipment between the two blocs and also tried to produce its own vessels . A " Bay " class frigate ( " Matti Kurki " ) , two " Dark " class fast patrol boats ( " Vasama 1 " and " Vasama 2 " ) and four BYMS class minesweeper s were bought from the UK , two " Riga " class frigates ( " Hämeenmaa " and " Uusimaa " ) and four " Osa II " class fast attack craft ( " Tuima " class missile boats ) were obtained from the Soviet Union . Some of the vessels , such as two " Turunmaa " class gunboats ( " Turunmaa " and " Karjala " ) and the " Nuoli " class fast attack craft were produced domestically . The Paris peace talks in 1947 resulted in a treaty that limited the offensive capability of the Finnish military . For the navy , this meant a limitation to a fleet of no more than 10 , 000 tons and 4 , 500 men . As for the weaponry , torpedoes , submarines , mines and missiles were forbidden . The restrictions were eased in the 1960s and missiles and mines were allowed . The torpedo restriction was not either fully exercised as the " Riga " class frigates were equipped with torpedoes and a number of torpedo boats were manufactured as gunboats that could quickly be converted to carry torpedoes . The cold - war limitations are no longer in place ( they were nullified with the breakup of the Soviet Union ) , but the size of the navy is still roughly the same . Current status . In the late 1990s , the Finnish Navy was developing a new missile squadron called " Laivue 2000 " ( ) . At first it was supposed to consist of two " Hamina " class missile boats ( already built at this date ) and four " Tuuli " class hovercraft . The Navy experimented with one prototype hovercraft , but announced in 2003 that the " Tuuli " class would not enter active operations and that no more of them would be built . Instead two new " Hamina " class missile boats were built , and the extra weaponry from the hovercraft were installed on the " Hämeenmaa " class minelayers . The cable layer " Putsaari " and pollution control vessel " Hylje " were replaced in 2011 by a new multipurpose vessel built by the " Uudenkaupungin Työvene " shipyard . A new icebreaking oil spill response vessel was named " Louhi " on 8 March 2011 . Equipment . Future vessels . As the Squadron 2000 is finished , the Navy has shifted its attention to mine prevention and will replace the old " Kuha " - and " Kiiski " - class minesweepers with three " Katanpää " - class mine countermeasure vessels , previously known as the MCMV 2010 and MITO classes , that will be delivered in 2012 and reach operational readiness by 2015 . The next generation surface combatant , which is going to be bigger than the current missile boats and more capable for international co - operation , is currently in pre - development stage . This new class of multi - purpose naval vessels , dubbed MTA 2020 in the preliminary papers , is intended to replace the " Hämeenmaa " - and " Pohjanmaa " - class minelayers and " Rauma " - class missile boats as they are retired . < ref name = " finlex12 / 2010 " > Hallituksen esitys 12 / 2010 . FINLEX . < / ref > In October 2012 , Finnish Navy signed a 34 million euro contract for 12 fast transport boats with an option for more vessels with Marine Alutech , a Finnish company that has also built the " Uisko " - and " Jurmo " - class transport boats . The Watercat M18 transport boats can carry 25 troops and have a maximum speed in excess of . Defensive capability will be provided with a remotely - controlled turret capable of providing fire support during a landing operation . Coastal Forces . Coastal Forces include both the Coastal Infantry and Jaeger forces and the remnants of the coastal artillery units , which have moved from fixed and towed guns to truck - mounted and infantry - carried anti - ship missile s . The towed guns are being phased out as obsolete and all artillery - based coastal defences are to be retired within a near future . The Euro - Spike coastal missile system was taken into use in 2005 at the Uusimaa Brigade and the older truck - mounted RBS - 15 missiles have been complemented with new , upgraded RBS - 15 Mk . 3 ( known as MTO - 85M ) .