Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said in an interview to Postimees that his department has decided to purchase "at least 12 units" of CAESAR wheeled self-propelled howitzer for the country's armed forces. When this contract is implemented, Caesar will become the second type of self-propelled artillery in the Estonian army, which currently relies on South Korean K9 Thunder tracked self-propelled guns. This will also allow for the creation of a third self-propelled artillery division within the Estonian ground forces.
Hanno Pevkur himself quite interestingly explained the reason why the choice fell on Caesar he said, "You cannot maneuver much on tracks", thus hinting at a slightly lower level of mobility of tracked K9s, compared to its French-made counterpart.
Read more: While Ukraine Suffers Ammunition Shortage, russia Obtains Weapons From EU
The Opex360 website elaborates on this topic by adding that Estonia's announcement of intent to acquire a division of Caesars coincided with France's commitment to increase the production rate of this artillery system up to 12 units per month. Whereas in fact, the discussions about what kind of wheeled self-propelled gun suits Estonian forces the best, started in the nation's defense ministry months ago.
To be more specific, Estonia launched a competitive selection of wheeled self-propelled howitzers back in October 2023, among the options were the Slovak Zuzana 2, the latest Czech DITA, the Turkish T-155 Yavuz, the Swedish Archer, and the French Caesar.
A certain paradox, though, is that Estonia did not publicly announce this competition, and didn't provide any information in the process. Therefore, the selection criteria that led to the conclusion that Caesar was the best option, could only be guessed by those indirect indications.
The authors from the French website Opex360 suggest that Estonia could have chosen Caesar in light of seeking interoperability with Lithuania, which also had ordered 18 systems of the same type for its army in December 2022.
Additionally, the production rate factor could also have mattered in this case. According to the national defense plan, Estonia estimates that a war between the russian federation and NATO may start in the next few years, so there is not much time to wait for overseas artillery to reinforce the army.
Read more: South Korea Has 3.4 Million 105mm Artillery Shells, Everyone Would Benefit if Some Went to Ukraine
