Sweden buys HIMARS, Finland to handle service. Helsinki lobbied for the purchase for a year, according to its own minister

Sweden decided on Monday to buy rocket launchers HIMARS from the United States. It involves more than ten firing units, which according to Defense Minister Pål Jonson corresponds to half a battalion, for more than seven billion Swedish kronor, approximately 630 million euros, with the first units to arrive next year. SVT ↗

More interesting than the purchase itself, however, is what was agreed around it. Ammunition for the system is to be manufactured by Swedish factories and training as well as technical maintenance is to be taken over by Finland. The contract was signed in Uppsala by Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson and his Finnish counterpart Antti Häkkänen jointly. Expressen ↗

Ammunition is a bigger problem than firing systems

A rocket launcher itself is not rare goods. Ammunition for it is rare, and there is a shortage of it in the world. That is precisely why on the same day an agreement was signed between Swedish Saab and American Lockheed Martin that the precision PrSM missile with a range of five hundred kilometers will be manufactured directly in Sweden. Without that, Sweden would have firing systems but would be waiting in line for ammunition. SVT ↗

That queue is, however, real. According to Swedish reports, there is information that the United States is withholding deliveries of some HIMARS ammunition for its own needs. Buying an American system and relying on American stockpiles is therefore a risk that Stockholm clearly did not want to take. Dagens Nyheter ↗

Finland lobbied its customer for a year

The most interesting part of the story, however, is not Swedish. Finnish Defense Minister Häkkänen said it openly to the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on Monday, and the newspaper put it right in the headline: According to him, Finland lobbied Sweden for a year to buy heavy rocket launchers compatible with the Finnish ones. He used a formulation worth remembering in the process: "The equipment of rear area countries is used in NATO for the benefit of front-line countries." Helsingin Sanomat ↗

The reason is practical. Finland has American tracked rocket launchers MLRS, which use the same ammunition as HIMARS, and also has units that have been working with rocket artillery for many years. Sweden never had a similar system and must build the knowledge from scratch. Finland offered it to him - and thus became a necessary part of Swedish armament. SVT ↗

Häkkänen added for the Finnish public television what Helsinki's broader aim is. They want as many countries using American rocket launchers as possible to concentrate service in Finland. "And now Sweden is the first to do this. It strengthens our defense industrial base and increases our technological expertise," he said. A more precise estimate of the economic benefit for Finland is not yet available. Yle ↗

Rocket launchers paid for the service center

The center in question did not come into existence this week. The Finnish Army, Finnish technology company Insta, and Lockheed Martin agreed on it at the end of June 2026 and it is being built in Insta's premises in Tampere. It is the first European service center for the M270A2 and HIMARS fire control system - that is, not for the entire system, but for its control unit. Lockheed Martin ↗

And here is a detail that explains the entire process. Lockheed Martin designates the center as part of indirect industrial cooperation linked to Finland's purchase of F-35 fighter jets. Finland thus directed the industrial benefit from one major purchase into infrastructure for a completely different weapon - and found its first customer for it with its neighbor. Defence Industry Europe ↗

Norway decided differently

Sweden chose between the American HIMARS and the South Korean K239 Chunmoo system. Norway chose the Korean one earlier this year. The Nordic trio thus does not have a unified solution, and it is precisely in this that the Finnish move is readable: compatibility is not a given that does not need to be pursued, but the result of specific lobbying. Dagens Nyheter ↗

Estonia noticed above all what the agreement implies for the region - that Finland will perform maintenance and repairs of Swedish systems. Postimees ↗

Two models of how to make defense into domestic industry

For a Slovak and Czech reader, what is interesting about this is the comparative level, because the same thing is being done at home, just differently.

The Czech Republic is pursuing a product path. The Ministry of Defense concluded contracts with arms manufacturers last year for 122 billion koruna and in the first eight months of this year for another roughly 33 billion, mostly with domestic companies. STV Group achieved record revenues last year and exports ninety percent of production, the largest holding CSG over ninety-five percent, mostly to NATO countries. The most sought-after are 155-millimeter grenades, whose deployment is limited by a shortage of suitable charges. ČT24 ↗

Slovakia is so far operating at a lower level and offering cooperation. In early September, it offered Bulgaria cooperation in ammunition technologies within the Visegrad Group. HN ↗

Read also: Police thwarted a napalm attack on a Slovak drone factory. Five days earlier, three European armories burned down

The difference compared to Finland is in what is being sold. Czech companies sell a product, and when an ally changes suppliers, the order is gone. Finland is trying to sell a position - a service center, which is still the only one of its kind in Europe. No one has to go to it, but that is precisely Häkkänen's declared goal, and Sweden is the first country to decide to do so. That is why it was worth a year of lobbying for Helsinki.

Limits of this perspective

The economic benefit for Finland has not yet been calculated by anyone, Häkkänen himself says that a more precise estimate is not available. For now, it is about intentional agreements and declarations, not about finished contracts with volumes - this also applies to ammunition production in Sweden, where Saab and Lockheed have so far signed an agreement, not a contract.

Likewise, "first in Europe" is a temporary advantage. Nothing prevents a similar center from being established elsewhere, and Finland's head start is a matter of years, not decades.

And finally, the comparison with the Czech Republic and Slovakia is a comparison of models, not an evaluation. Exporting ammunition at a time when there is a shortage of it in the world is more profitable in the short term than operating a service center.

Illustrative photo: HIMARS during live fire during an exercise in Estonia. Photo U.S. Army, public domain.

What hotinfo watches