Latvia has received the first batch of self-propelled howitzers. The 155 mm/39 self-propelled howitzers M109A5Öe are part of a deal with Austria to buy a total of 47 armored vehicles. All of them are of the M109 family, but only 35 are howitzers. The remaining are 10 fire control vehicles and two machines for training of drivers.
The vehicles are not new. In fact, Austria got them used from Britain in 1994, so they are rather old by now. However, they were all modernized in 2002-07, and many of them were moved directly from modernization to the storage warehouse.1 Presumably Lativa therefore obtained some pretty good armored vehicles for the total sum of 6 million Euros.
- It seems to be a military tradition to modernize stuff just before you decide not to use it anymore. ↩
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