The US has warned European allies, including Estonia and Lithuania, of long delays in the delivery of US weapons due to the Iran war, the Financial Times reports. Reuters reported on the delays earlier. The US Department of Defence told to expect serious delays for several missile systems, including HIMARS and NASAMS used by Estonia and Lithuania. The Pentagon said that it was “carefully evaluating new requests for equipment from partners as well as existing arms transfer cases to ensure alignment with operational needs.”
Earlier, Estonian Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur noted that Estonia had purchased very expensive HIMARS equipment that, “in principle,” it could not do much with, ERR reported. He said that Estonia was therefore looking for other alternatives. At the same time, Estonia hoped to buy larger quantities of missiles from the US to compensate for the delays, Pevkur said. Meanwhile, the Lithuanian Defence Ministry announced deals to purchase more ammunition and missiles for the HIMARS and NASAMS systems, BNS reported.