Finland has compulsory military service as it turns out and I have noticed that ever since we landed in Helsinki, but here in Mikkeli I’ve noticed something out of the ordinary. A lot of the soldiers that walk around and come to service their cars are not due to the compulsory military service, but rather high ranking officers and lieutenats.

A couple of times that I went on a test drive with my mentor, we went near the Mikkeli military base, which is near the Mikkeli airport. Well, as it turns out that base is not a regular military base but rather the head of Finnish Army command and NATO’s new Northern Multi-Corps Land Component Command center since 2025.

These are a lot of big words, but essentially, what it means is that all of the northern actions, operations, logistics… are decided right here about 4 km from our apartment.

This isn’t a big growling base with thousands of soldiers or big military equipment like lots of tanks or fighter jets, but rather a quiet strategic command center responsible for all the military actions that have ever taken place up north.