Estonia, 3 other countries procuring short-range, shoulder-fired missile systems together

TALLINN – Estonia, Poland, Lithuania and Norway signed a statement in Warsaw on Friday for the joint procurement of short-range, shoulder-fired missile systems.

With the joint statement, the countries mandated the procurement of the systems to the Polish Procurement Agency, which has the technical expertise and engineers for both testing and quality control of the missile systems.

The signing ceremony was attended by Poland's Ministry of Defense State Secretary Paweł Bejda, Director General of Estonia's Center for Defense Investment Magnus-Valdemar Saar, Deputy State Secretary at the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense Monika Korolovienė, and the national armaments director at the Norwegian Ministry of Defense, Rolf Kjos. 

Saar described Poland's contribution to the Estonian supply chain as very large.

"We have direct contracts with Polish companies WB Group and Mesko. Subcontracting work for several of our projects is done in Poland. For example, Nitro-Chem, one of the largest manufacturers of explosives in Europe, plays an important role in most of our munitions procurements. At that company, explosives-related portions of very many warheads are prepared, either as components or otherwise," the head of Estonia's Center for Defense Investment said.

At the beginning of this year, the Estonian Center for Defense Investment delivered Polish-made Piorun short-range air defense systems to the Estonian defense forces. These systems are capable of hitting targets up to eight kilometers away. This summer, the Polish company WB Group modernized Estonia's ZU-23 anti-aircraft autocannons.