The U.S. Air Force will send six F-15s to Finland
this spring for exercises that will operate out of a base about 100 miles from
the border with Russia, military officials say.
The six jets from the 173rd Fighter Wing at
Kingsley Field Air National Guard Base in Oregon will fly training missions
with Finnish forces as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, which the United
States initiated in 2014 to reassure NATO allies after Russian military intervention
in Ukraine.
The United States requested the
exercises, said Maj. Sheryll I. Klinkel of U.S. Air Forces Europe. Though
Finland is not part of NATO, it shares an 813-mile border with Russia and has
worked with the United States several times in the past few years.