Estonia and Finland to unify coastal missile defense

Estonia and Finland will combine missile systems of the coast guard within the framework of the defense integration plans of the countries.

This was stated by the Minister of Defense of Estonia, Hanno Pevkur, in an interview with Iltalehti.

“We have to integrate our coastal defense missile systems. The range of Estonian and Finnish missiles is greater than the width of the Gulf of Finland. This means that we will unify our missile defense and share all information with each other,” he said.

The head of the Estonian Defense Ministry emphasized that this decision will allow the closing of the Gulf of Finland to Russian warships.

“The Baltic Sea will become NATO’s internal sea when Finland and Sweden join NATO. The situation will change,” he said.

The publication notes that last year Estonia decided to purchase Israeli Blue Spear missiles to combat naval targets. The flight range of these missiles is 290 km. This means that the Estonians can direct their missile fire anywhere on the Finnish coast in the gulf.

At the same time, the MTO 85M (modified for Finland RBS-15 Mk 2) anti-ship missiles purchased by the Finnish Navy have a range of over 100 km and are equipped with a radar homing system. It is noted that the Finns can focus their fire on the northern coast of Estonia.

Iltalehti recalls that Finland and Estonia had already planned a joint coastal defense in the 1930s, but both countries lacked allies at the time.

As previously reported, Estonia and Latvia will jointly purchase the air defense systems.