Estonia — MoD procured AA-weapons from Finland

The Min­istry of Defence pro­cured from Fin­land a lim­it­ed num­ber of addi­tion­al launch­ers, train­ing and main­te­nance devices and spare parts for the Mis­tral SHORAD-sys­tem, as well as 23mm ZU-23–2 anti-air­craft can­nons to be installed on Navy ves­sels.

The addi­tion­al launch­ers and spare parts for Mis­tral-sys­tem arrived in Esto­nia this week; the 23mm anti-air­craft can­nons were deliv­ered in the sum­mer of 2011. 

The 23mm ZU-23–2 anti-air­craft can­nons, pur­chased from Fin­land, are also used by the air defence units of the Eston­ian Army. The can­nons, pur­chased from Fin­land, are installed on spe­cial ves­sel plat­forms, which also allows for their use against sur­face tar­gets as well as air tar­gets. The pro­cured can­nons will be installed on the ves­sels of the Eston­ian Navy. 

In addi­tion, a lim­it­ed quan­ti­ty launch­ers, train­ing and tar­get-find­ing sim­u­la­tors, test­ing equip­ment and var­i­ous spe­cial tools and spare parts for the Mis­tral SHORAD-sys­tem were acquired from Finland. 

The equip­ment will be used to com­ple­ment the Mis­tral SHORAD-sys­tem, pur­chased back in 2007, and it will reduce the train­ing and life cycle costs of the exist­ing system. 

Accord­ing to Ing­var Pär­namäe, Under­sec­re­tary for Defence Invest­ments of the MoD, the pro­cure­ment con­clud­ed with Fin­land is a rea­son­able com­pro­mise between the high-qual­i­ty equip­ment need­ed by the Defence Forces and a price that is afford­able to Eston­ian taxpayers. 

“Procur­ing addi­tion­al launch­ers, train­ing and test­ing equip­ment for the Mis­tral-sys­tem serves as a good exam­ple of how easy and afford­able it is to pro­cure addi­tion­al equip­ment after the basic capa­bil­i­ties have been devel­oped for a rather large amount of mon­ey. We have con­duct­ed sim­i­lar small pro­cure­ments to com­ple­ment the SHORAD sys­tem before; last year, we pur­chased addi­tion­al launch­ers and vehi­cles from Bel­gium,” explained Pärnamäe. 

The weapons and equip­ment pur­chased from Fin­land were used by the Finnish Navy and were removed from their use in con­nec­tion with the struc­tur­al changes being intro­duced in the Navy. The con­tract also includ­ed the adjust­ment and main­te­nance of the equip­ment in Finland. 

The total cost of the equip­ment was EUR 283,050; the exact num­ber of weapons and equip­ment is con­fi­den­tial under the pro­cure­ment contract. 

Addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion:
Peeter Kuimet
Press Offi­cer
Min­istry of Defence
Tel: +372 717 0116 / +372 56 56 41 88
peeter.kuimet@kmin.ee

Source:
Eston­ian Min­istry of Defence