Estonian armed forces to receive small caliber ammunition for 50 Million Euro.

The Estonian Center for Defense Investment (Riigi Kaitseinvesteeringute Keskus) has announced a €50 million public procurement of small-caliber ammunition for the regular Estonian Defense Forces (EDF) and the volunteer Defense League (Kaitseliit). The tender covered both Estonian and international manufacturers.

A soldier from the Scouts Battalion in ESTDCU firing his Galil SAR (Picture source: Wikipedia/Private First Class Siim Teder, Estonian Defence Forces)

Ramil Lipp, armament category manager at the center, said: "We sent an invitation to participate in market research to close to 30 international enterprises and, via the Estonian Defense Industry Association (Eesti Kaitsetööstuse Liit), to all Estonian defense industry companies as well," Lipp continued. "We can say with certainty for the first time that we have included all global ammunition manufacturers known to us. We have been very open from the start of the procurement process, while also taking into consideration the EDF's technical requirements and needs. Through very thorough market research, we have a detailed overview of the global production capacity of ammunition of various caliber and their market price levels."

Procurement details: total estimated cost €50 million; procurement method involves a competitive negotiated procurement in the field of defense and security; framework agreement up to seven years; option of switching contract partners after four years; first delivery dates will be announced during sub-tenders.

Although the defense force employs various individual weapons to provide light firepower at short ranges, the standard weapons used by the ground forces are the domestically upgraded variants of the 7.62mm AK-4 and 5.56mm Galil-AR assault rifles, both of which are scheduled to be replaced by 2021, as well as the 9mm variant of the HK MP5 submachine gun for special operations force. The primary sidearms are the 9x18mm Makarov PM and the 9x19mm USP semi-automatic pistols. Some units are supplemented with a variety of specialized weapons, including the Galil-ARM and Negev light machine gun, to provide suppressive fire at the fire-team level. The 18.53mm Benelli-M3T dual-mode shotgun is used for door breaching and close-quarters combat. The domestically produced modification of the 7.62mm M14 selective-fire automatic rifle TP2 and Galil-S are used by the snipers, along with the 8.6mm Sako TRG and 12.7mm Hecate II heavy sniper rifles are used long-range marksmen.