Saaremaa-based firm Baltic Workboats (BWB) is building the ships, around six years after it completed two similar patrol boats. The new Euroguard warship is also intended to serve as a prototype for several European navies.

Those two vessels were donated to Ukraine, whose navy is, like Estonia's, comparatively small, in 2024.

"These two patrol vessels that the navy will be getting will primarily be used to carry out patrol functions in our coastal waters, law enforcement functions, and, where necessary, to take part in maritime rescue operations. These are not exactly the same platforms as those sent to Ukraine. In designing and building these platforms, both our previous experience with the vessels and the Ukrainians' feedback on improvements have been taken into account," Navy Chief of Staff Capt. Ain Pärna told "Aktuaalne kaamera."

Wednesday saw the keel-laying ceremony at the shipyard for the second of the two new boats, which cost around €10 million to build.

The new vessels are an improved model compared with BWB's previous output: Slightly longer than their predecessors at 20 meters, and capable of operating in even shallower water.

The Police and Border Guard Board's fleet was merged into the navy's in 2023. The Estonian Navy (Merevägi) is a part of the Estonian Defense Forces and not a standalone service.

BWB has been in operation for around 25 years, and built nearly 300 vessels of varying size in that time. Based at Nasva, near Kuressaare, Saaremaa's capital, BWB employs around 200 people and reported an annual revenue of aronud €70 mllion. Some of its exports include electric ferries to Sweden.

The recent sea ice and low water levels revealed shortcomings of some state maritime capabilities, both civil and defense, while last summer it proved not possible at that time to board a Russian "shadow fleet" tanker which had strayed into Estonian waters and been halted.

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