Brigadier General Sami-Antti Takamaa

Deputy Chief of Staff, Army Operations Finnish Army

Brigadier General Sami-Antti Takamaa was born in 1967 in Kangasala, Finland. Having completed the conscript service in 1986-1987 in the Oulu Ground Based Air Defence Battalion and graduated from the Cadet School in 1991 as a Lieutenant, he started serving in the Lapland Air Defence Regiment in Rovaniemi and in the Helsinki Air Defence Regiment in Tuusula as a course leader to cadets. His qualifications include training in both air defence gun and missile systems. Since the completion of the General Staff Officer course at the Finnish National Defence University in 2000, Takamaa has served in altogether 16 different positions in the Defence Command, Army Command and in several Army brigade-level units. His two overseas assignments include serving first in Kosovo during the clashes between Kosovo Albanians and Serbs, and then as a military adviser to DCOM/EU OHQ in the UK.

His long-term service in the GBAD branch brought him back to the Army Command in 2018 where he served as Inspector of Ground Based Air Defence for almost two years. Most recently, he has held the posts of Commander of the Jaeger Brigade (2019-2022) in High North, which is Finland’s northernmost military unit, and Commandant of the Army Academy from February 2022 to the end of December 2022.

Takamaa was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in December 2022, Brigadier General Takamaa was assigned as Chief of Operations (Army) as of 1st January 2023.