WARSAW, Poland — Estonia’s government has decided to put on hold its planned acquisition of new infantry fighting vehicles.
The Baltic nation will instead direct the funds toward drones, counter-drone measures and air-defense systems, while squeezing more service life out of the country’s existing fleet of second-hand CV90 vehicles.
Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur announced the move, which pauses a €500 million ($590 million) acquisition, last week, saying it was based on lessons drawn from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Tallinn will “extend the service life of the existing CV90 vehicles by at least 10 years,” Pevkur was quoted in a statement issued by the government.
The move is in contrast with actions by the other two Baltic States, Latvia and Lithuania, which have made decisions to buy new CV90 and Ascod vehicles, respectively.
“We have decided that, at present, it is more rational to modernize the existing infantry fighting vehicles rather than replace them. Modernization will ensure the sustained preservation of capability and the efficient use of resources,” Andri Maimets, spokesman for the Estonian Centre for Defence Investments (ECDI), the country’s military procurement agency, told Defense News.
Under the modernization plan, the vehicles are to be fitted with new electronics, and their weapon and targeting systems will be upgraded, Maimets said.
Estonia secured 44 used CV90s from the Netherlands that were delivered in 2019, and sourced additional 37 hulls of vehicles made by BAE Systems Hägglunds for Norway, subsequently rebuilding them into support vehicles.
Raimond Kaljulaid, an Estonian lawmaker who represents the opposition Social Democratic Party on the parliament’s National Defence Committee, told Defense News the decision should be viewed in the context of Estonia’s rising military expenditure.
“Estonia spends over 5% of its GDP on defense, and this is real spending on our military which is above NATO’s 3.5 percent target to meet the capability targets,” Kaljulaid said. “This means that, if we want to invest more in counter-drone technologies or combat drones, the money must come from the existing budget,” he added. “If our threat assessment and priorities change, we need to adapt our spending accordingly.”
The lawmaker said the National Defence Committee will “keep a close eye on the adapted approach to make sure that everything is done the right away to ensure national security.”
As Tallinn advances plans to select a foreign supplier for the planned domestic ramp-up of 155 mm artillery ammunition production, Kaljulaid also said that projects to attract international defense industry players to Estonia must be accelerated.
“The past five-six years have brought remarkable success to the development of Estonia’s defense industry, with unmanned technologies as one of the prime examples. At the same time, we must make efforts to ensure that Estonia continues to be competitive with regards to other countries in the region,” he said.
Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.
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