The UK’s Royal Marines from 45 Commando recently participated in Exercise Green Dagger at the United States Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center, situated 7,000 feet high in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. The six-week exercise focused on both traditional commando training and evaluation of new military equipment, aiming to further develop the Royal Marines’ renowned […]
One of my new favorite YouTube channels is Baltic Defence Review. The Baltic region has long been an area of interest for me (I even wrote my International Affairs degree thesis on Swedish Defence Doctrine back in 1992), and with Sweden and Finland joining NATO a couple of years ago there have been a series […]
SAKO has officially launched the ARG (Arctic Rifle Generation), a next-generation NATO-standard rifle platform developed in close collaboration with the Finnish and Swedish Defence Forces. As we’ve previously reported, since joining NATO Sweden and Finland also decided to standardize on a common NATO-compatible rifle platform for the two countries to replace their legacy assault rifles […]
The HK G8 was a specialized variant of the HK11E light machine gun which was optimized to provide semi- and full-auto direct fire support for small special operations teams. Chambered in 7.62x51mm NATO, combined the precision of a rifle with the firepower of an automatic weapon – filling that so-called ‘light support weapon’ or ‘light […]
In British slang, to call someone an “anorak” is the equivalent of calling them a nerd or a geek – or, as we say in our world, a “geardo”. Well, we’re proud geardos here at Strike-Hold, so let’s follow on from our smock post yesterday by taking a deeper dive into the range of anoraks […]
On 27 March 2023, the Finnish and Swedish Defence Forces signed an agreement for a joint range of military small arms with Finnish firearms manufacturer Sako Ltd. The range of firearms to be manufactured will gradually replace the the Swedish and Finnish Defence Forces’ current assault rifles, semi-automatic marksman rifles and heavy precision rifles. […]
In April of 2023 Finland officially became NATO’s 31st member – ending a journey away from full neutrality that began in 1991 when Finland joined the European Union. However, although Finland’s economic neutrality was already a thing of the past, militarily the country had been officially neutral since 1949. Besides having the longest shared border […]
