Estonia launches competition to host major foreign munitions firm

MILAN — The Estonian Centre for Defense Investments has launched a competition for picking a munitions producer to set up shop at a military base in 2025, a move meant to jump-start a domestic shell production industry.

The ECDI, the procurement arm for the Estonian Defense Forces, announced the bid on Aug. 21, calling on companies to submit their proposal by early October.

The winner will be granted a space of approximately 8,900 square meters at the Ämari military base, located southwest of the Estonian capital Tallinn, for up to five years. The site will include a maximum of seven ammunition storage facilities, protective embankments and communication equipment, according to an ECDI statement.

The government’s goal is to launch the production of ammunition for combat use in the first half of next year.

“We currently do not have any ammunition production within the country, [hence] we are heavily dependent on other European countries for this,” Tuuli Duneton, undersecretary for defense policy, told Defense News in an interview last year.

At the time, the Estonian official had said that two options were being assessed to set up domestic manufacturing.

The first, would involve an Estonian defense company establishing a dedicated facility for producing shells, and the second, would entail the creation of a manufacturing plant in Estonia by a European company, preferably a privately owned one.

Officials did not name desired projectile types in the new ECDI tender, saying only the deal would cover “ammunition or combat ammunition containing explosives.”

Fellow Baltic nation Lithuania launched a similar industry initiative earlier this year. The government signing a memorandum of intent with Rheinmetall to build a 155mm ammunition plant locally.

The proposal was part of a series of amendments made by Lithuanian economic authorities to existing regulations, with the goal of attracting major arms maker to a open production sites amid the promise of lowered bureaucratic hurdles.

The push to turn the Baltic states into munitions producers comes amid an explosion in the demand for artillery shells across the European market, as countries seek to strike a balance between sending rounds to Ukraine while simultaneously boosting their own stocks.