Finnish Rapid Deployment Force

Serving as a conscript in the Finnish Rapid Deployment force literally paves your way to serving as a peace keeper.

Apart from undergoing training in military national defence, the trainees receive specialization training in crisis management tasks. In fact, over a half of the conscripts who complete this training end up serving as peace keepers within 18 months after mustering out.

Service location: Pori Brigade, Säkylä

Service duration: 347 days

Contingent: January

Training

The trainees get training for branch-specific tasks in jaeger, mortar, combat engineer, signals and logistics companies. Depending on the units in question, the tasks include those of command vehicle drivers, C class drivers, medics and dispatch riders as well as anti-tank soldiers, scouts, mortar men, CE class drivers and EOD specialists. Some conscripts in the rapid deployment force receives section leader training, and few are trained as platoon leaders in the Reserve Officer School in Hamina.

Requirements for entry

In order to qualify, the applicant needs to sustain

• good state of health, fitness for service class A

• good physical condition

  • the passing rates for the Test of Physical Fitness (The exact scores are defined in the entrance exam invitation posted to the applicants) are as follows:

    • Cooper Test 2300 m

    • Sit ups 22 times/min

    • Push ups 20 times/min

    • Standing long jump 180 cm

    • Evacuation test in less than 2 min (video)

• satisfactory proficiency in Finnish and English

• stress resilience

• readiness to commit to the rapid deployment force and serve abroad after the training

• B class driving license (phase I must have been completed by the entrance exam, phase II by the beginning of the training, and phase III prior to the start of the FDF driver training).

The applicant MUST NOT sustain

• criminal register or incidents of drunken driving or any other eliminating factors that exclude from attending the FDF driving training,

• chronic skin condition,
• allergies or asthma that restrict service,
• easily irritable lactose-intolerance,
• Coeliac disease,
• locomotor problems in the musculoskeletal system.

It is to your advantage if you have:

• a suitable civilian education (for instance, the education of a driver, carpenter, mechanic, medic, electrician, or IT-specialist),
• proficiency in other languages,
• flawless record of traffic offences,

Applying

NB! Due to the worsening epidemic situation, the entrance exams in the spring for contingent 1/2022 are canceled. Applicants have been notified of the cancellation by email on March 17th 2021. If the applicant has not received the notification, they are asked to check that the email has not ended up in the spam filter.

The additional entrance exams will be held in weeks 29 and 30 in July. Applicants will receive an invitation to the entrance exams by e-mail during April-May. The entrance exams may take from one to two days depending on the exam group.

Fill in your application at: https://asiointi.puolustusvoimat.fi/en (copy link to your address bar).

Linkit

• Apply for the rapid deployment force training (YouTube)
• Application for the special operations forces (paperilomake)
• APPENDIX 1: Medical certificate on your state of health 
  (You can obtain a copy of the certificate issued in the call-ups also at your regional office