Estonian Ministry of Defense announces plans to deploy US tank unit and move HIMARS to Lithuania

21:03, 05.09.2025 1 min read

The United States will transfer a HIMARS multiple launch rocket system stationed in Estonia to Lithuania, and a tank unit of the US armed forces will arrive in return, Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said on Friday.

"It is in our interest that Latvia and Lithuania also become stronger, and the goal of this program from the very beginning was for a HIMARS unit to come here to train our people until we get our HIMARS. Now everything is ready, they (the Americans) have been here even longer than originally planned. Now they are being transferred to Lithuania to do the same," he told the ERR portal.

He noted that "one unit will be replaced by another, and one could even say that now we will have more armored forces."

Pevkur could not say how large the tank unit that will arrive will be: "It will become clear in September, when the unit arrives."

The six HIMARS complexes purchased by Estonia arrived in the country in April of this year.