An Estonian soldier carries an artillery round in this undated photo. (Estonian Ministry of Defence)
WASHINGTON — NATO member Estonia has pledged to spend €1.6 billion ($1.8 billion) for long-range ammunition, saying it will devote a full quarter of its military budget to ammo in “coming years.”
“Ammunition will be the main focus of the defence budget in the coming years,” Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur said in a release today. “Of course, the Estonian Defence Forces are always ready to defend the Estonian people and the state without delay, but we still need more stocks of ammunition, among other things, to affect the adversary in its own territory.”
Estonia, which shares an eastern border with Russia, said the €1.6 billion will be spent “until 2031,” the defense ministry said, citing the State Budget Strategy approved by lawmakers earlier this week.
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Pevkur said that given the “security situation” — likely a reference to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its sabre-rattling about NATO’s support for Kyiv — “it is our responsibility to actively develop national defence and boost the capability of the Estonian Defence Forces.”
He noted that Estonia already has €1.9 billion-worth of contracts on the books for “previously planned stocks of ammunition and we will organize more tenders to fill our ammunition stores as soon as possible.”
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Overall, Estonia plans to spend 3.3 percent of its GDP on defense through the next four years — well above the NATO-required 2 percent and, Tallinn said, behind only Poland in defense-to-total budget ratio.
In the release, the Estonian MoD cited a few key pending acquisitions, including the nation’s first High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), a new loitering munitions “battery,” and German Iris-T medium-range air defenses, all expected in 2025.
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Senior Estonian officials have long warned that Russia could turn its attention to eastern European NATO members when the war in Ukraine is over. Earlier this year Estonia’s then-chief of defense, Gen. Martin Herem, even produced a mathematical formula for when he expected Moscow to attempt to invade Estonia.
“There’s only one factor that we can change: our readiness,” he said in early May. “We can support Ukraine, but one day [Russia] is coming out.”
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