Estonia and Latvia on Monday signed a joint agreement worth about one billion euros to purchase the Iris-T SLM medium-range air defense system from the German manufacturer Diehl, Tallinn announced, AFP reports.

Berlin added that the two Baltic states also signed a letter of intent to participate in Germany’s European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI), launched last year after Russia invaded Ukraine.

“This is definitely the biggest defense investment in the history of Estonia. Together with Latvia, almost a billion euros is something we don’t see every day,” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur told the press.

“Russia’s barbaric war in Ukraine has shown that air defense is essential to protect armed forces and critical infrastructure from air attacks,” he added in a statement.

The signing ceremony took place at the Diehl Defense Development Center in Rothenbach, near Nuremberg in southern Germany.

“I am very glad that our partners, Estonia and Latvia, have decided to purchase the IRIS-T SLM. This will undoubtedly strengthen European air defense,” said German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius in Rothenbach.

“The letter of intent signed today seeks to place the national IRIS-T SLM acquisition effort under the umbrella of our ESSI initiative. I really appreciate it,” he added along with his Baltic colleagues.

Led by Germany, 19 European countries, including Great Britain, Belgium, Finland, Hungary, the Netherlands and Sweden, have come together to develop a ground-based air defense system under the ESSI project.

The Sky Shield system will involve the joint acquisition of short-, medium- and long-range systems, including the German Iris-T missiles, the American Patriot and the US-Israeli Arrow-3 missiles.

But France, Italy and Poland did not join the project, instead Paris supported the air defense system using European equipment.