Estonia Selects Blue Spear Anti-Ship Missile for Coastal Batteries

Estonian Center for Defense Investment (ECDI) has signed a contract with Proteus Advanced Systems Pte. Ltd., a joint venture company of Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) and ST Engineering Land Systems Ltd. (ST), to equip the Estonian Defense Forces with Blue Spear (5G SSM) missile systems.

ECDI announced today that it has reached an agreement for developing Estonian coastal defence capabilities and arming the defense forces with the Blue Spear (5G SSM) land-to-sea missile system.

Proteus Advanced Systems Pte. Ltd., is proud to be selected, following a tender process, to provide the Estonian Defense Forces with advanced anti-ship missile systems.

The project, with tight timescales and encompassing a complex set of requirements, is one of the biggest projects in Estonian defense procurement and definitely the most complex.

Asko Kivinuk the Strategic Category Manager for maritime defense systems said:

“I am pleased with our team for managing to stay in the given time frame and keeping the tender competitive up till the very end. The award was based on several evaluation criteria including total cost of ownership, involvement of local industry and on the delivery time.”

Hand in hand with the new capability development in maritime domain, the contract provides opportunities for the Estonian defense industry.

Minister of Defense of Estonia said:

“This weapon system substantially improves our coastal defense and sends a clear message that we are contributing to the regional and collective defense effort. This is one of the most complex and high-tech weapon systems of all time and a huge leap forward for the Estonian Defense Forces. I am very glad that Estonia has a defense industry capable of participating in such high-tech projects.”

Commander of the Estonian Navy commodore Jüri Saska added:

“The chosen weapon system will form the cornerstone of Estonian naval defense for decades to come. Estonian Navy will be able to contribute significantly both to national, regional and collective defense effort.”

“We are proud to be selected to equip the Estonian Defense Forces with the advanced Blue Spear missiles. We greatly value this opportunity and look forward to deepen our cooperation with the Estonian Defense Forces. This 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.” said Proteus Advanced Systems’ General Manager, Ron Tryfus.

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’s maximum range is 290km. Blue Spear missiles shares a heritage with IAI’s Gabriel missile family system which has been developed over many years.

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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