The Ermistu development covers 204 hectares of previously forested land near Pärnu. The ammunition depot will cover a further 100 or more hectares;, Defense Ministry says officials have met residents, with their safety being a priority.

The planning process has already been met with legal challenges, however.

One local resident, Külly Selberg, who lives in nearby Päraküla, said to "Aktuaalne kaamera": "If this entire complex is hit as a result of an accident or an attack, what will happen and what will be left of us?"

Selberg said no one had instructed villagers on how to act in the event of danger; the Ministry of Defense says officials have met residents in the surrounding towns of Tõstamaa, Audru and Pärnu.

Indrek Sirp, special adviser on defense industry development at the ministry, said ammunition production is subject to extremely strict regulations. "Safety is the number one priority. Safety must be ensured, as must security, which is why the area will be guarded and protected," Sirp said.

Sufficient separation between storage facilities, for instance, means these must also be located sufficiently far apart.

There are a total of 63 households within a 3km radius of the planned park.

Liina Käär, a resident of Lõuka village, chose to live in the Ermistu area due to its peace and quiet and clean air. However, even with construction only in its early stages, this has already changed: Power lines are being installed and roads built, and trucks often drive through the village, at some speed, she said.

Residents are also disturbed about plans for an open waste burning site and an ammunition testing ground. The Estonian Center for Defense Investments (RKIK) said most industrial waste will be burned in an enclosed incinerator, with open burning reserved for exceptional cases.

Ivar Kaldasaun, the RKIK's defense industry park portfolio manager, said regular detonations would not become a feature of life for residents local to Ermistu. Tests involving 5-10kg of explosives would be carried out on just three days in a year, he said. "It's not as though there will be loud explosions here every day."

Residents have also expressed concerned about the effects on the ecosystem of the Männiku River, which flows through the site. Since the summer the Environmental Board has been getting numerous reports that the water, a spawning ground for salmonids, is being polluted as a result of the work. The Board's deputy director general, Olav Avarsalu, said results show higher levels of pollution during heavy rainfall, when rainwater washes clay sediment into the river. "But so far, only one set of samples has shown levels exceeding the permitted limits," he said.

Construction of the main infrastructure at the defense park is scheduled to begin next summer.

Background:

The first four tenants of the Ermistu facility were named in October 2025 — Estonian firms Nitrotol, Frankenburg Technologies and Infinitum Strike, plus UK-based Thor Industries — producing mines and explosive charges, short-range air defense missiles, missile boosters and plastic explosives, with the state leasing land for up to 70 years and RKIK building the infrastructure.

Forest clearance on about 40 hectares of the roughly 200-hectare site was completed in February 2026, and phase two, the companies' own production facilities, was due to begin in the autumn.

Litigation is still running: the Päraküla Society, Roheline Pärnumaa, Eesti Metsa Abiks and 27 individuals are challenging the August 2025 spatial plan, and in July 2026 the Tallinn Administrative Court postponed its decision to take further evidence on noise, having found that the park's noise cannot be treated as national defense noise and must meet industrial noise standards.

The Ermistu park is one of three planned defense parks in Estonia, in the changed security situation. The other two are located at Ämari and Põhja-Kiviõli in Ida-Viru County

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!