Estonian company GoCraft is set to construct the country's first armored vehicles refitting and repairs workshop where suitable weapons systems will be installed. Such a garage needs to meet stringent security criteria.
Growing need for capacity, the presence of NATO allies and increasingly more complex weapons systems are putting pressure on Estonia's defense sector and the three or four private companies which conduct maintenance work, ETV news show 'Aktuaalne kaamera' (AK) reported Sunday night. The state is investing €200 million over the next decade, to improve the situation.
0 >Artist s impression of potential uncrewed Estonian navy vessels, borne by a larger boat. Source: Merevägi/ERR
The Estonian Navy (Merevägi) is investigating options on developing unmanned vessels, primarily for use in its mine clearing work, ETV news show Aktuaalne kaamera (AK) reported Wednesday evening. A potential manufacturer of such craft is the Saaremaa-based Baltic Work Boats (BWB), while actual funding could, if granted, come from the European Defense Fund.
The current Merevägi fleet – made up primarily of several U.K.-built mine-hunters – reaches the end of its life-cycle at the end of this decade, AK reported, with the navy looking towards uncrewed vessels as a main focal point of development.
Estonian research and development in the field of defense has for the first time secured major funding from the European Union. Defense development projects have previously fallen to member states and contractors, Taavi Veskimägi writes.
The European Union agreed on a defense industry activity plan in 2017 following initiative from Estonia. Its aim is to reduce fragmentation of weapons systems, fill gaps in military capacity and boost Europe s competitiveness in defense R&D.
This will see the EU invest â¬500 million through the European Defense Industrial Development Program (EDIDP) in 2019-2020 and â¬8 billion through the European Defense Fund (EDF) in 2021-2027 in European defense research and development.