Tag Archives: Nordic Combat Uniform

More Scandinavian NATO STANAG-ness

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We’ve talked in the past about how the Nordic NATO countries– Denmark and Norway– have been getting really close militarily to the two Baltic neutrals– Finland and Sweden in recent years via the Nordic Defence Cooperation group, or NORDEDCO. For instance, all four countries last year announced a common service/combat uniform with each keeping their own respective national ceremonial uniforms, headgear, and patches/insignia.

Well, with the likelihood that Finland and Sweden are getting NATO membership, it also looks like all four countries will opt to use small arms of the same caliber that take the same magazines.

Announced this week, Sweden and Finland, teamed up with Finnish-based Sako, will opt for a common family of rifles. The new family of common rifles includes an M4-style 5.56 NATO carbine, an AR-10/SR-25 style 7.62 NATO caliber rifle, and a bolt-action precision rifle in .338 Lapua Magnum.

Sako will be the rifle maker for all of the Finnish and Swedish military needs in an agreement that could last to 2053

Scandinavian neighbors Norway and Denmark both already field AR variants, with the Norwegians using HK 416s and the Danes running C7s and C8s– which are fundamentally just M16A2s and M4s but made by Colt Canada. Elsewhere in the Baltic, the German Army is set to adopt the HK416A8 as the G95A1 starting in 2024. 

All five also share several other common systems, such as the Leopard 2 main battle tank.  

While the Swedes have been using German HK G3 designs in 7.62 NATO and FN FNC models in 5.56, the Finns will have the biggest culture shock, as they have been using the 7.62x39mm AK-47-based Valmet rifle since the 1960s.

Finland has, since the 1960s, used a variety of locally-made updated Kalash models made by Valmet. Valmet’s gun manufacturing unit merged with Sako in the 1980s. (Photo: Finnish Defense Forces)

More in my column at Guns.com.

Viking Homogenization

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Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway have co-developed and will purchase a single set of field military uniforms, termed, “The Nordic Combat Uniform System” or NCU, which have been tested under an initiative since 2019.

The NCU kit will be standard for all four countries, with each using its own unique headgear and insignia. 

The uniform is modular, with camouflage add-ons and special rain and jungle variants. 

As the NCU is a field uniform, unique dress uniforms will also be retained for ceremonial use by the individual nations.

More Scandinavian cooperation

While only Denmark and Norway are NATO allies– and each had been invaded and occupied in WWII– Finland and Sweden have made a big point to remain officially unaligned. However, the NCU and at least 10 other initiatives, under the Nordic Defence Cooperation (NORDEFCO) working group, are underway, including armaments and the defense industry.

At the most basic level, currently, the Danes and Norwegians use AR-pattern rifles (the C7/C8 and HK416, respectively) while Sweden uses a domestically made version of the FN FNC (the Ak 5) and Finland runs a half-million local AK Valmet variants (Rk 62, Rk 72 Tp, Rk 95, and Rk 56 Tp).

However, in a common denominator when it comes to pistols, Finland, Norway, and Sweden all use the Glock 17 as their standard military sidearm, leaving Denmark as the odd man out with the Sig P320– although it should be noted that the Danish Navy’s Greenland-based Sirius Dog Sled Patrol has carried the 10mm Glock 20 as a polar bear repellant for the past two decades.

Of course, this sort of “Skandinavism” has been a pipe dream for the region going back almost 200 years.

A 19th-century poster image of (from left to right) Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish soldiers joining hands. The Norwegian and Swedish flags have the union mark. Painting by an unknown Danish artist between 1844 and 1850.