The Estonian Center for Defense Investments (RKIK) has been working alongside the Estonian Defense Forces (EDF) to find new infantry fighting vehicles for almost a year.

A big investment is coming Estonia's way as the infantry fighting vehicle procurement contract states a percentage of the deal must be invested in the domestic defense industry.  

Last week, Hanwha Aerospace issued a press release saying it would invest €100 million in Estonia's defense industry. The plans include an ammunition plant, a military equipment maintenance and repair center, and research and development cooperation with Estonian companies.

However, these plans will only materialize if the state decides to purchase Hanwha's Redback infantry fighting vehicles. 

Estonia already has agreements in place with Hanwha Aerospace for its Chunmoo MLRS and K9 self-propelled howitzers.

The Janari Kasemets, category manager for combat platforms at the RKIK, told ERR more about the plans.

Multiple manufacturers

"In cooperation with the EDF, we have examined different combat vehicles, visited manufacturers and selected four producers whose vehicles could potentially be suitable for them. Now we are reaching the final stage, where we have enough information, and a decision is expected quite soon on which specific one we will choose. The manufacturers are also aware of this," Kasemets said.

However, he said other manufacturers have also "made their own offers, some more similar and some less similar."

This includes Sweden's BAE Systems, whose CV90 combat vehicles are already in use in Estonia. Another is the U.S. defense company General Dynamics, which is offering the Ajax and ASCOD infantry fighting vehicles, respectively. These are deployed in Latvia.

Which company the investment comes from, how much, and with what agreements will remain open until the Ministry of Defense makes a final decision within the next couple of months.

Industry specialists who spoke with ERR said Hanwha wants to draw greater attention to its plans with the press release, hoping to secure the contract.

However, Estonia may lean more toward the Swedish option, since the CV90 is already in use.

Additionally, in November, Estonia signed an agreement with nearby countries to deepen cooperation in developing and potentially procuring their next-generation combat vehicles. However, this does not mean there is any obligation to purchase those vehicles again.

Ammunition plant to produce grenades

If the South Korean infantry fighting vehicles are selected, the planned ammunition plant would produce 40-millimeter grenades.

These could be used with the Mk 47 automatic grenade launcher, Hanwha Aerospace Land Systems Business Group 2 head Byung-gil Lee told ERR.

Estonia currently uses Mk 19 grenade launchers, which means the factory's output would primarily be intended for domestic use.

As the construction of this specific plant depends on the state's decision, no further details have been agreed upon, only that a local partner will be found to operate the plant.

Hanwha Aerospace has already signed several memoranda of cooperation with Estonian companies. For example, together with Frankenburg Technologies and Marduk Technologies, there is a plan to develop and begin producing counter-drone systems.

Lee said these could also potentially be adopted by the South Korean military in the future, and discussions with the South Korean government are underway.

Hanwha would open Southeast Asian markets access

The South Koreans have also been working closely with Estonia's Milrem Robotics for several years. The company's CEO, Kuldar Väärsi, told ERR that cooperation is currently focused mainly on two directions.

"There is one joint robotics system development project, a larger robotic platform where we are cooperating on development. The other concrete direction is marketing one of our core products, the THeMIS, in various export markets."

Together with Hanwha they are developing the unmanned combat vehicle Vector, which can carry weapons equivalent to those used on the CV90 infantry fighting vehicles currently in service.

Väärsi said Vector would increase the firepower of combat vehicles and the safety of crewed vehicles.

However, in the case of THeMIS, Milrem wants to reach markets that would be difficult to access independently.

"Hanwha certainly has much better access to certain markets than we do. So it makes sense to have a cooperation format where we jointly market it in markets where Milrem may not have such good access. While we see Europe as our main market, Hanwha has very good contacts and a very strong position, for example, in Southeast Asia, but also in Australia and the United States," he said.

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