Estonia and Finland to deploy coastal missile defense systems

Finland and Estonia will integrate their coastal missile defense which would allow the countries to close the Gulf of Finland to Russian warships if necessary, Minister of Defense Hanno Pevkur (Reform) told Finnish newspaper Iltaleht.

“We need to integrate our coastal defenses. The flight range of Estonian and Finnish missiles is greater than the width of the Gulf of Finland. This means that we can connect our missile defenses and share all our information with each other,” Pevkur (Reform) said in an interview during a working visit to Finland.

Estonia will buy Israeli Blue Spear land-to-sea missiles this autumn, which have a range of 290 kilometers. Finland’s MTO 85M missiles have a range of over 100 kilometers.

At the Gulf of Finland’s narrowest point, there are 52 kilometers of sea between the two countries and 120km at its widest.

Pevkur said the integration of missile defense systems will make it possible to close the Gulf of Finland to Russian warships.

“The Baltic Sea will be NATO’s internal sea when Finland and Sweden have joined NATO. Compared with what it is today, the situation is changing,” he said.

The minister also discussed securing airspace. It has been agreed upon by NATO that the Allies will secure the whole Baltic Sea region.