Ministry of Defence confirms Kellavere radar is working
The Estonian Ministry of Defense has confirmed Kellavere radar, Estonia's advanced warning system, is operational despite Finance Minister Martin Helme (EKRE) claiming to have heard that it is not working.
"One state secret I have heard is that the Kellavere radar simply does not work. But go and get a hold of that state secret," Finance Minister Martin Helme said in an interview with the daily Postimees.
Spokespeople for the Ministry of Defense told BNS that Estonia's advance warning system, which also functions as NATO's advance warning, is operational. "The Kellavere radar with recently updated software and hardware is working," the spokespeople said.
"The defense forces have drawn up an analysis in which the technical characteristics of the Kellavere radar and the wind turbines' disturbance of the radar's work have been described. As this document contains descriptions of the operating parameters of the radar, this threat assessment is a state secret the inspection of which requires authorization of access to the state secret on the relevant level and a justified need for the knowledge," ministry spokespeople said.
In the interview, Helme said that "a large portion of the crusade against wind energy is sitting behind one deputy secretary general of the Ministry of Defense, behind [Meelis] Oidsalu. He is the one who here - if we talk about exceeding one's power competence - is one deputy secretary general of the Ministry of Defense who is issuing orders to various institutions across the ministry with no kind of hesitation and nobody has a problem with it".
Defense Minister Jüri Luik (Isamaa) told the daily that the Ministry of Defense assesses, in accordance with the law, wind turbine interference from the perspective of national defense structures, including the assessment of the effects on radars and radio systems. He stressed that the law requires the Ministry of Defense to coordinate projects related to wind farms.
"The projects are assessed by our experts. I think we all understand that there is no such know-how in the Ministry of Finance, but they have familiarized themselves with our analysis, as have institutions carrying our supervision proceedings," Luik added.
Justice Minister Raivo Aeg (Isamaa) said at the meetings of the National Security Council that he has attended the topic of the condition of the Kellavere radar has not been talked about.
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Editor: Helen Wright
