Spain delivers NASAMS air defense systems to protect Estonian airspace

NASAMS air defense systems arrive in Estonia from Spain. Systems will go on combat duty already this week.

Hanno Pevkur, Minister of Defense of Estonia, voiced this.

The entire personnel and the head of the Spanish contingent are already quartered at the air base in Ämari.

“We concluded the first agreement with the Spaniards, it will last four months. What happens next? We are currently discussing this issue in NATO. Of course, we would like to see the same system that we have now with fighter jets,” Minister of Defense Hanno Pevkur told Estonian broadcaster ERR.

He noted that Estonia wants to achieve a rotation of air defense systems from its NATO allies, just like the rotation of fighter jets that protect the airspace of the Baltic countries.

The tender period for Estonia’s purchase of new air defense systems will expire in a month. So far, it is known that more than five proposals have been received. State procurement is carried out jointly with Latvia.

According to the plans of the Ministry of Defense, air defense systems should enter the service of the Defense Forces by 2025.

The NASAMS air defense system is designed to combat maneuvering aerodynamic targets at low and medium altitudes.

The battery includes a radar station, a towed launcher with six containers for AMRAAM missiles with a range of up to 40 km and a command and control center.

Spain said it would send the NASAMS air defense system to Estonia for four months in February.

The purpose of the Spanish NASAMS unit is to protect Ämari Air Base as a strategic facility.

A similar unit exists in Latvia, both systems are interconnected and are part of the air and missile defense of NATO’s eastern wing.