Estonia to buy U.S. rocket artillery system in $200M deal - KOKI FOX 23 TULSA

HELSINKI — (AP) — NATO subordinate and Russia’s neighbour Estonia is boosting its defence capabilities by acquiring an precocious U.S. rocket artillery strategy successful the Baltic country’s largest arms procurement task ever, defence officials said Saturday.

A woody signed Friday for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System is worthy much than $200 cardinal and includes instrumentality specified arsenic ammunition and rockets arsenic good arsenic training.

The bundle includes HIMARS rockets with ranges of 70-300 kilometers (43-186 miles), the Estonian Center Defense Investment said successful a statement. Lockheed Martin Corp. is expected to marque the archetypal deliveries successful 2024.

"The HIMARS aggregate rocket launchers are a caller important measurement successful the improvement of Estonia’s defence capabilities,” Lt. Col. Kaarel Mäesalu, caput of the capableness improvement section astatine the Estonian Defense Forces. “This makes it imaginable to decisively power the force adjacent earlier coming into interaction with our infantry units.”

Estonia's Baltic neighbors Latvia and Lithuania either person oregon are presently successful the process of acquiring their ain HIMARS.

Washington has provided Ukraine with the rocket launchers during Russia's penetration of the country. The Estonian Defense Ministry said the HIMARS systems "have helped to destruct Russian subject ammunition warehouses, transport nodes, and bid and power centers with pinpoint accuracy beyond the scope of the howitzers Ukraine has been using."

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