Official press releases, news and speeches that the minister has held are located in this section. The Ministry of Defence publishes all of its press releases and news in Finnish and Swedish and many of them in English, too.
Press Releases
Market Court rejected Heckler & Koch's appeal concerning acquisition of assault rifles
On 17 May 2024, the Market Court rejected Heckler & Koch's appeal concerning the Defence Forces' acquisition of assault rifles from Sako Oy.
The procurement will be made jointly with Sweden. The Swedish Defence Materiel Agency (FMV), the Defence Forces' Logistics Command and Sako Oy are parties to the framework agreement, concluded by Finland and Sweden, that covers the procurement of a joint family of handguns. The purpose is to strengthen defence cooperation and joint preparedness between Finland and Sweden, which has been taken into account in the terms of the framework agreement.
Carried out without competitive tendering that would have been in line with the Public Defence and Security Procurements Act (1531/2011), the procurement was instead referred to a national operator under Article 346 1(b) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. A key reason for the direct procurement is the requirement for military security of supply. It has been estimated that to safeguard the key security interests of the State of Finland requires that the national production and maintenance capacity of small arms be maintained in Finland under all circumstances. The procurement is therefore a question of the key security interests of the State.Inquiries: Iikka Marttila, Senior Ministerial Adviser, Ministry of Defence, tel. +358 295 140 038.