On Tuesday, the government agreed in principle to allocate €1.6 billion to buy ammunition. Prime Minister Kristen Michal (Reform) said the amount will be spread over several years. The Ministry of Defense will complete the procurements as soon as possible, and all the necessary ammunition will be procured by 2031.

Pevkur told Wednesday's "Uudis+" program Estonia may want to buy ammunition faster, but delivery times are long due to high demand.

"The fact is, the specific ammunition we need, we cannot get from the market any faster because the demand has become so high. Particularly as far as the more expensive long-range weapons are concerned, long-range ammunition. But the important thing for us is that we can go straight into contracts. That is what we have been saying all along, that if we do not make contracts now, we are going to have, firstly, even longer delivery times and, secondly, more expensive goods," the minister said.

The Defense Forces (EDF) and National Center for Defense Investments will agree on when the right time to announce procurements is, he said.

At the same time, the defense industry is developing rapidly and the market needs to be monitored, Pevkur added.

"Today, long-range capabilities are driving the international defense industry forward very rapidly. /.../ In the war in Ukraine, we can see that the Ukrainians were able to use their drones to influence the Russians from 300 kilometers away, but today they are talking about 1,500, 1,800 kilometers. /.../ And they're getting faster and faster, so we have to leave ourselves a certain buffer so that we can keep up with the times," the minister said.

However, Pevkur said that if EDF chief Maj. Gen. Andrus Merilo wants contracts to be concluded immediately, i.e. next year, then this is what will happen. "But I strongly believe that it is sensible to spread it over a longer period of time and it is sensible to do it in such a way that we also leave a certain buffer," he said.

One example he highlighted is the USA-developed PrSM – Precision Strike Missile – that will enter the U.S. military's arsenal this year. However, export will not permitted until 2028 or 2029.

"But, of course, the whole plan we're going to do and what I asked the government yesterday, so that we can go into procurement right away, we're going to deal with that and hope to get all the contracts done as soon as possible," said the minister of defense.

Ammunition will be purchased in the coming years, Pevkur told the show.

"I am quite convinced that we need to leave ourselves a certain buffer to keep up with developments. It would be difficult to do that, so that we are now locking up things that we do not yet know are on the market," he said.

On Tuesday, an important decision was made by the government to allow contracts to be concluded outside of the usual four-year planning period, the minister said.

Additionally, Pevkur will need to have further discussions with Merilo, who submitted an updated military recommendation for ammunition procurement in July.

"We have spoken with the commander of the Defense Forces, and we need to review our plans once again based on NATO's capability requirements. As a result, we definitely need to update our ammunition procurement plan, which also means that we will need to purchase certain additional capabilities. However, the majority of the commander's advice concerns ammunition that we can use with the weapons systems we currently have. We cannot approach this by simply buying something for storage that we cannot actually use – ammunition is cool, but it is useless if we do not have the means to fire it," the minister told "Uudis+".

Finding alternatives for the most expensive purchases will also be reviewed.

"The cost of an ATACMS missile is far beyond a million [euros], with the price per shot trending towards 1.5 to 2 million. If we look at the market for alternatives that can strike targets 300 to 500 kilometers away, the signals we are getting indicate that many alternatives are emerging. ATACMS is one type of ammunition that Lockheed Martin is actually phasing out of production, as a new weapon or ammunition type called PrSM is coming onto the market. We need to stay up to date so that we do not end up purchasing systems that we may not be able to use in 10 years," Pevkur said.

At the same time, PrSM is unlikely to be cheaper than ATACMS, he added. Alternatives, such as loitering munitions, have also been discussed.

"This technology is developing very rapidly and has a longer range. For example, on Wednesday, there will be an electronic warfare gathering in Tartu, where various manufacturers from around the world, including 40 companies, have come to Estonia. We will learn a great deal about electronic warfare methods and, for instance, loitering munitions. On Tuesday, I spoke with a company that supplies loitering munitions to Estonia, and they, too, have made advancements. The ammunition industry is evolving at an incredibly fast pace right now," Pevkur said.

Exactly what and how much will be bought will not be announced to the public anyway, he said.

"We certainly will not be publicly announcing the exact dates for when a particular shipment arrives or how much will be delivered. We do not want to make things that easy for our adversaries by disclosing the arrival times and quantities of everything from bullets to missiles," the minister added.  

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