The Estonian Defense Investment Center (ECDI) announced that the American company Lewis Machine & Tool (LMT) had won the tender for the supply of assault rifles of 5.56 mm and 7.62 mm.
“The committee primarily assessed the reliability of the weapons, as well as the economic feasibility, that is, the total cost of the project,” said Colonel Ruano Sirk, director of the Estonian Defense Investment Center. “Our goal is to buy automatic firearms that are accurate, convenient and reliable in different weather and environmental conditions. The transaction value also matters. In this case, we estimated the life cycle cost, and not just the cost of buying weapons and additional equipment, and we took into account the costs we have to bear over the next 20 years. "
According to the planned contract, Estonia will purchase about 16,000 firearms with additional equipment in the amount of 22 million euros during the years 2019-2021. The contract should also provide for the option of acquiring additional weapons until 2026.
Currently, the Estonian army is equipped with two models of rifles: Galil and AK4.
Estonian military hopes to get the first of the new assault rifles by February 24, 2019, on Estonia's Independence Day.
