Even Estonia is acquiring drones, in this case Israelis
Estonia has signed an agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to purchase indirect fire munitions in response to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Considered one of Estonia's most significant defense purchases , the contract will "significantly increase" the country's indirect fire capabilities.
The munitions should provide an advantage over long-range enemies, complementing Estonia's existing anti-ship missiles, long-range artillery munitions and multiple-launch missile systems. These are drones (loitering munitions) capable of flying over the battlefield and therefore hitting targets and destroying them.
Plans for the deal were initially announced at an Estonian cabinet meeting in February.
The training will be provided together with the arrival of the first tranche in 2024.
An advantage in indirect fire weapons
The Estonian Defense Forces currently uses indirect fire weapons through self-propelled howitzer divisions and a combination of maneuver units.
In the next two years, with the delivery of the latest acquisition, further units of long-range munitions and multiple rocket launchers will be put into service.
The system Estonia is interested in is HAROP or HARPY. The first is heavier, capable of reaching 417 km/h and with an autonomy of 1000 km, the second is lighter, with only 185 km/h of speed, more pocketable and with an autonomy of 600 km. However, it could be the mini version of HAROP, currently under development.
Harpy
“The importance of indirect fire cannot be overstated, as Russia has caused much of the destruction in Ukraine through indirect fire,” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said.
“Range munitions are particularly useful when users seek greater flexibility and responsiveness in the use of firepower to quickly locate the enemy and act decisively based on information acquired from the weapon itself in real time”. Added Boaz Levi, CEO and President of IAI. Market research for procurement began in 2022 and
Estonian government officials have focused on obtaining long-range offensive weapons with high accuracy, large-range simultaneous offensive capabilities, and powerful ammunition.
“The long-range ammunition market is currently turbulent and uncertain. The future of this market will certainly involve intense competition and the coming years will reveal where these systems evolve further,” said Ramil Lipp, armaments manager at the Estonian Defense Investment Centre.
“We have placed orders for long-range weapons whose exact specifications we cannot disclose, but in the future we plan to purchase similar weapons with different technical capabilities and to shoot at different ranges.”
Obviously these weapons are purchased for an anti-Russian function, it is useless to hide them. Moscow's armored personnel carriers suffered heavily from the use of drones during the conflict in Ukraine, so Estonia plans to secure itself by using these tools of different technology.
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The article Even Estonia acquires drones, in this case Israelis comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/perfino-lestonia-si-dota-di-droni-in-questo-caso-isaeliani/ on Sat, 06 May 2023 16:46:19 +0000.