Estonia Blue Spear Missile: Estonian Centre for Defence Investment has signed a contract with Proteus Advanced Systems, a joint venture company of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and ST Engineering Land Systems, to equip the Estonian Defence Forces with Blue Spear missile, a 5th generation surface-to-surface missile system.
ECDI Wednesday announced that it has reached an agreement for developing Estonian coastal defence capabilities and arming the defence forces with the Blue Spear (5G SSM) land-to-sea missile system.
The project, with tight timescales and encompassing a complex set of requirements, is one of the biggest projects in Estonian defence procurement and definitely the most complex.
“The award was based on several evaluation criteria including total cost of ownership, involvement of local industry and on the delivery time,” said Asko Kivinuk, the Strategic Category Manager for maritime defence systems.
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Kalle Laanet, Estonian Defence Minister.
Kalle Laanet, Estonian Defence Minister said: “This weapon system substantially improves our coastal defence and sends a clear message that we are contributing to the regional and collective defence effort.”
Laanet said this was one of the most complex and high-tech weapon systems of all time and a huge leap forward for the Estonian Defence Forces.
“I am very glad that Estonia has a defence industry capable of participating in such high-tech projects,” Kalle Laanet said in a statement sent to Defence Star.
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Commodore Jüri Saska, Commander of the Estonian Navy, said the chosen weapon system will form the cornerstone of Estonian naval defence for decades to come.”
Saska said Estonian Navy will be able to contribute significantly both to national, regional and collective defence effort.
Ron Tryfus, General Manager of Proteus Advanced Systems, said Blue Spear is a very advanced, operational proven system, leading the sea battlefield by its capabilities and based on IAI’s many years of experience in the field of missiles, particularly with the Gabriel missile family.
“The strong cooperation of IAI and ST Engineering expresses the capabilities of the two companies in developing advanced battle systems. The Blue Spear system, being the advanced member of the Gabriel missile heritage, will serve as the next generation of surface to surface missile systems,” he said.
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IAI’s Blue Spear Missile
According to the Israeli defence company, the Blue Spear missile system is an advanced precision weapon which can operate at all weather conditions, day and night and enables strike capabilities beyond the line of sight, against mobile and stationary targets at sea.
The missile has a maximum range is 290 kilometers.
Blue Spear missiles shares a heritage with IAI’s Gabriel missile family system which has been developed over many years.
Blue Spear Missile contract ceremony.
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The Blue Spear system enables launching from several land-based platforms with flight at high sub-sonic speed.
The warhead employs an active radar-homing seeker, accurate INS-based navigation capabilities and a robust system which is immune to GPS disruptions and maximal accuracy target acquisition.
The systems are equipped with a variety of deception means to achieve its mission and cope with the different battle-field challenges.
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