Estonia Chooses New SHORAD Air Defense System

Giraffe AMB radar

In recent years, the Baltic States have made efforts to implement short-range air defense programs, though to date these have mostly been efforts to defend vital targets within their countries as opposed to any effort at national air defense. While Latvia and Lithuania opted for Sweden’s unjammable laser-guided RBS-70, Estonia went in a different direction.

After narrowing the competition to Raytheon’s FIM-92 Stinger and MBDA’s Mistral, the Estonian government announced the winner of a 1 billion Kroon (currently about $84.5 million) contract on Feb 28/07 for Mistral missiles, networked via Saab’s Giraffe 3D radars. Now the first systems are being delivered, and a Finnish decision will also help deliver complementary long-range radars to Estonia.

Venezuela Buying SU-30s, Helicopters, etc. From Russia

SU-30, armed

There have been a series of reports from a number of sources that Venezuela has finalized a deal with Russian arms manufacturers. Those reports have now shifted the total from $1 billion to around $3 billion, and expand its focus beyond SU-30MK2 (Mnogofunktzionniy Komercheskiy 2-seat) long-range multi-role fighters and various Russian helicopters to include other equipment as well. The final deal is reportedly still being negotiated.

Russian deals are extremely non-transparent, and often there are conflicting reports with no official confirmation of announced reports or additional details released. Based on news reports from various sources, however, here’s what DID can tell you about the likely shape of the deal and the nature of the equipment in question, aside from the USA’s predictably futile requests that Russia not go through with the sale.

DID’s coverage today includes updated information regarding the deal, and adds sources that have emerged sicce this article was first published on July 24, 2006. The latest news is the claimed crash of a Mi-35 – but DID explains why that story may be problematic…

• Venezuela-Russia 2006: Deal, Updated
  
• The Fighters: Sukhoi’s SU-30MK2s
  
• The Helicopters: Plans for 33 Coming to Fruition?
  
• Venezuela-Russia 2006: Follow-on Events & Milestones [NEW]
  
• Appendix A: DID Analysis & Op/Ed (July 31/06)