Born in Helsinki in 1962, Vauhkonen joined the Finnish Defence Forces in 1981. After graduating from the Military Academy in 1986, he has served in a wide range of training, command and international positions. Vauhkonen´s background is the Finnish Navy’s coastal units, which specialised in amphibious warfare. As a junior officer Vauhkonen served as a training officer within the coastal units and also at the Military Academy. Rear Admiral Vauhkonen returned to Finland to take the position of Director of Finnish Defence Intelligence; Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, Defence Command Finland on 1st of January 2021. As a more senior officer he has served as Commanding Officer of the Coastal Jaeger (amphibious) Battalion in Nyland Brigade, the only Swedish speaking unit in the Finnish Defence Forces in 2005-2007 and further between 2009-2012 as the Chief of Staff and Commanding Officer of the Nyland Brigade. Vauhkonen possesses staff experience from the Defence Command and Navy Command. While working as the Assistant Chief of Staff Operations (M3) at the Navy Command 2007-2009 he was responsible for the overall readiness of the Navy, including the international cooperation in Sea Surveillance activities. His last assignment in the Navy was the Chief Of Staff Navy Command in 2013-2016. In this position he was responsible for the daily operations of the Navy Commander’s staff and in this position he was essentially the second-in-command of the Finnish Navy. Rear Admiral Vauhkonen has also served in various international assignments, for example Deputy Defence Attaché and Naval Attaché in Germany 2002-2005 and at the same time as the Defence Attaché to the Czech Republic and Slovakia. He also has international experience from the field as the Commanding Officer of the Finnish Contingent in Afghanistan in ISAF 2007-2008. He has also served as the Deputy Force Commander of the EU Nordic Battle Group 11 in 2009-2011. This assignment was double-hatted simultaneously with a national assignment. Vauhkonen speaks Finnish, Swedish, German and English. Rear Admiral Vauhkonen has studied higher level command of operations at the EU Senior Mission Leaders Course in Brussels and Bruges in 2013.
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