Estonian the armed forces are now buying weapons at a historically close pace. Last year, the country's defense spending exceeded the billion euro mark for the first time. This year, defense spending continues to grow and is more than 1.3 billion euros.
This year, the share of defense spending in Estonia's gross domestic product exceeds the three percent mark for the first time to almost 3.3 percent.
The military association NATO recommends to its members a share of at least two percent of the gross domestic product. Even in NATO, the pressure to raise the limit to three percent has increased over the past year due to Russia's aggressive actions.
The Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania jointly announced at the end of 2022 that they intend to raise the share of their defense spending to three percent of the gross domestic product. However, they did not agree on a common schedule.
For comparison Finland's defense budget for this year is about 6.2 billion euros, which corresponds to 2.3 percent of the gross domestic product.
Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas said of The Times in an interview published on Monday, that Europe has three to five years to prepare for Russia expanding its aggression to NATO's eastern border.
Kallas bases his assessment on the Estonian foreign intelligence report. According to it, Russia considers Estonia and two other Baltic countries to be “the most vulnerable parts of NATO”, making them the most likely targets for attack.
Estonian Director of the State Defense Investment Center (Riigi katseinvestinnerite keskus), which is responsible for military equipment and the assets of the defense administration Magnus-Valdemar Saar asks in the latest investment review of the Ministry of Defense, how can Estonia prevent or win the next war?
Saar answers his own question with a well-known Latin phrase: “si vis pacem, para bellum”. If you want peace, prepare for war.
“We prepare for war and offer everything we need for national defense,” Saar writes.
Estonian the Ministry of Defense's most recent investment review covers the years 2023–2027.
Review is an interesting read. It clearly shows how important Estonians consider it to be that the money allocated to the defense budget is used specifically for the purchase of military equipment: weapons and ammunition.
In 2022, Estonia spent slightly less than 400 million euros on defense investments, i.e., in practice, arms purchases and related projects. In 2023, the amount increased to almost 600 million euros.
It is predicted that defense investments in Estonia will grow annually at such a rate that at the end of the decade the 1 billion euro limit will be exceeded.
In the period between 2023 and 2026, Estonia will spend 58.5 percent of its defense expenditures on defense procurement. Even internationally, it is a very high ratio.
Many western countries have switched to professional armies, leaving less defense budgets for weapon purchases and more and more spending on personnel costs.
For example, in Finland, efforts have been made to emphasize that weapons and equipment investments necessary for the tasks of the Defense Forces should always be at least a third of the total expenses.
What kind of armament Estonia is buying in the next few years?
In short, Estonia is investing in short- and medium-range anti-aircraft missiles, heavy rocket launchers, stealth weapons, naval defense equipment, 155-millimeter howitzers, and armored fighting and personnel carriers.
In Estonia's ammunition procurements last year and this year, the vast majority of the money has been spent on large-caliber ammunition and stealthy weapons.
In Finland, Estonia's arms deals attracted the most attention last year when Estonia decided to buy armored personnel carriers from Turkey for around 200 million euros. In Finland, it was hoped that Estonia's purchase would have focused on Finnish vehicles.
The core of the Estonian ground forces consists of one division, which is divided into two brigades, i.e. the 1st and 2nd infantry brigades. Of these, the 1st infantry brigade is already equipped with assault vehicles and Patria personnel transport vehicles.
The 230 vehicles purchased from Turkey will go mainly to the 2nd Infantry Brigade, which does not yet have wheeled armored personnel carriers. The first Turkish carriages will arrive in Estonia already this year.
Estonia did last year also the largest arms deal in its history, when it bought the medium-range Iris-T SLM anti-aircraft system from Germany together with Latvia.
The first parts of the system, which cost about 400 million, will be put into operational use amazingly quickly, i.e. already next year.
Estonia has also just bought so-called lurking weapons from Israel. These are explosive drones that are guided to their target.
According to the Ministry of Defense of Estonia, this was also one of the most expensive arms deals in Estonian history. In Finland, he later listened with interest to the Estonians' experiences of this new type of weapon.
Similar weapons have broken through in the last two years in Ukraine. Deliveries of explosive drones to Estonia are expected to start this year.
Also Finnish arms dealers have received their share of Estonia's recent acquisitions.
Estonia announced last spring that it had made deals with Sako for new 8.6 millimeter sniper rifles. The value of the seven-year framework agreement is 40 million euros.
Estonia buys TRG M10 sniper rifles, which will replace older rifles also bought from Sako. Deliveries of new rifles to Estonia will begin this year.
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