Estonia has launched a major procurement drive to buy up to 600 concrete bunkers for the Baltic Defence Line, as the three Baltic states push to harden their eastern flank “from the first metre” of national territory.
The Estonian Centre for Defence Investments, ECDI, said it was seeking companies able to manufacture and deliver the bunkers in large quantities for deployment along Estonia’s border with Russia. Latvia’s defence ministry has expressed interest in joining the tender and is in talks over possible participation.
The procurement is being run as a negotiated competitive procedure and has been published in Estonia’s public procurement register.
Asko Kivinuk, ECDI’s deputy director-general, said the first bunkers had already been delivered and installation was progressing “step by step” in south-eastern and north-eastern Estonia, adding that experience from the initial deliveries had given officials confidence to scale up. He said a joint procurement with Latvia could cut costs through economies of scale.
Estonia has begun installing the first bunkers in southeastern Estonia near the Russian border, part of a wider Baltic Defence Line. Photo: Hendrik Tali/ECDI
Estonia has also moved previously acquired counter-mobility assets into pre-designated storage areas, while work continues on an anti-mobility trench system.
ECDI said it aimed to complete the Baltic Defence Line in its currently approved scope by the end of 2027.
