Twenty-eight bunkers and more than 10 kilometers of anti-tank ditches have been dug in southeastern Estonia as work on the Baltic Defense Line progresses.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are strengthening their border areas against a possible future attack in a joint plan known as the Baltic Defense Line.
Estonia is spending up to €60 million on digging a network of anti-tank ditches and installing 600 bunkers, thousands dragons teeth and anti-personnel mines on its eastern border.
In recent months, several of these structures have been completed in the forests of the Setomaa, although much work remains.
One example is a trench constructed from geotextile fabric and steel reinforcing mesh that leads to a bunker. The mesh has been installed along the sides and will also be placed on top of the roof to protect drones.
Lt. Col. Ainar Afanasjev, engineer inspector at the Estonian Defense Forces Headquarters, said two strongpoints have been established in northeastern and southeastern Estonia.
“In total, 28 bunkers have been installed. In addition, we have built more than ten kilometers of anti-tank trenches in southeastern Estonia, and more than 20,000 dragon’s teeth have been delivered. Some of them have been placed in forward storage areas, meaning as close as possible to our positions,” he said.
However, there has been some criticism that the trenches are not deep enough.
MP Peeter Tali (Eesti 200), a member of the Riigikogu’s National Defense Committee, believes improvements could still be made. He said the anti-tank ditches are only effective when mined.
“The weakness of anti-tank trenches is that they could be wider, with steeper sides and greater depth. In reality, all of this has to be viewed as a complete system—anti-tank trenches, dragon’s teeth, anti-tank mines and anti-personnel mines. The biggest weakness is that Estonia does not have anti-personnel mines. We have withdrawn from the Ottawa Convention, but to create a credible defensive belt capable of stopping an adversary, we need not only anti-tank mines and engineer obstacles, but also anti-personnel mines,” Tali told ERR’s “Aktuaalne kaamera” evening news show.
Afanasjev said that the defenses are primarily intended to delay an advancing enemy.
“All of these trenches have been built exactly as they should be. No anti-tank trench by itself will stop a tank. Its purpose is to slow it down and channel it, and once a tank has been slowed — or if specialized equipment such as a bridge-laying tank is used to overcome the obstacle — it becomes an excellent target for us. Anything wider and deeper also requires more resources, which we simply do not have. Bigger and better is not always as effective as what has currently been designed and tested on the training grounds,” he replied.
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