Over the past few weeks, the Estonian defence industry and its various aspects have been under the spotlight more than usual. This is due to the strong support of the newly-formed government for the view that the defence industry is part of the broader development of Estonia’s defence capabilities.
Taavi Veskimägi, Chairman of the Council of the Estonian Defence and Aerospace Industries Association, told ETV’s news programme “Aktuaalne Kaamera” this week that the new government’s coalition agreement will create a basis for the competitiveness of the Estonian defence industry, as Estonian defence companies are already making ground-breaking new products that create new added value.
“From this point of view, the added value that we are seeking is certainly much greater for us than these potential tax increases of a few percent,” Veskimägi said.
In the context of increased attention, we share Taavi Veskimägi’s highly topical article in Edasis, published in April, which opens up the state of the defence industry yesterday, today and tomorrow.
We strongly recommend you to read Taavi’s full article on Edasi.org
Some of the key points from this article:
1. In 15 years, the Estonian defence industry has grown to such an extent that about 10 products from our company are already in use in Ukraine. In 15 years, the defence industry in Ukraine has grown to 15.15 million units. The defence industry’s turnover in 2022 was 250 million, the target is to reach 1 billion euros by 2030, based on both exports and domestic demand.
2. The EKTL has reached a stage in its development where we believe that within 6-12 months, the members of the Union can increase their production capacity to a level that would provide €100 million of defence products to support Ukraine and help Ukraine win the war.
3. The Estonian defence industry can be the most flexible and reliable partner for the Estonian Defence Forces, play on home field advantage, and precisely serve the interests of Estonian defence.
4. The sector needs a little more security than it has at present. A good first step would be to amend the National Defence Act in such a way that it is unambiguously clear to Estonia that the local defence industry is part of Estonia’s defence capability.