Russia’s NATO neighbor seeks major boost in ATACMS missiles

Estonia has asked the US to raise the cap on long-range munitions purchases by several times, a senior official has said

Estonia plans to buy three to four times more long-range ATACMS missiles than the 18 that the US has already agreed to sell, Tallinn’s military procurement chief announced on Monday. The NATO country borders the Pskov and Leningrad regions of Russia.

Last month, the Estonian government approved a significant boost to its defense budget, with an additional €1.6 billion ($1.75bn) earmarked for long-range munitions through 2031. This has almost doubled its fund for such purchases.

Magnus-Valdemar Saar, the director of the Estonian Center for Defense Investments (RKIK), has said the money will buy additional MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) ballistic missiles. The weapons are produced by the US arms giant Lockheed Martin and have a range of up to 300km, depending on the version.

Such a request would be “substantial” even for such a large maker “and we don’t know how such an order would impact their decision-making processes and manufacturing processes,” the official told public broadcaster EER.

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Estonia previously purchased six HIMARS launchers, which can be used to fire different types of munitions, including ATACMS. Tallinn has already sent a request to the US Congress to increase the caps for relevant ammo purchases, even though it has not fully exhausted previous limits, Saar said.

The US previously cited the shortage of stockpiles of ATACMS missiles and their long production time to explain why the number of such weapons sent to Ukraine to fight Russia was so limited. Tallinn is ramping up defense spending due to what it thinks is a threat posed by Moscow to the Baltic states. The Russian government denies having any hostile intentions towards the US-led NATO military bloc, which Moscow considers a major threat.

Estonian military commanders want a 300km-range capability by 2028, “and if I cannot get ATACMS by then, I will have to look for alternatives,” Saar said during the interview. Long-range drones or domestically-developed cruise missiles could theoretically be used to take out military infrastructure at such a range, according to the publication. Procurement decisions are affected by multiple factors, including political, budgetary, and technical, the official mentioned.

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Asked about previous remarks by Estonian officials that the country would prefer to have as many as 800 ATACMS missiles in its stockpile, Saar said that figure went well over the allocated funding, even if concern about delivery times were not an issue.