The Baltic Defence Line is a joint initiative of three countries – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – aimed at ensuring military defence from the very first metre and, in addition to conventional border obstacles, establishing military defensive structures in border areas. The purpose of these defensive structures is to prevent military conflict in the region.
In Estonia, the Defence Line constitutes a comprehensive system of obstacles and field fortifications, which includes, among other elements:
- defensive support points (including up to 600 squad-level bunkers for units of the Estonian Defence Forces and the Estonian Defence League);
- storage areas (for the peacetime storage of fortification elements, including so-called dragon’s teeth and concertina wire, to enable their rapid deployment to support points in the event of a military threat).
A single peacetime support point consists of:
- concrete bunkers;
- a container with construction equipment;
- dragon’s teeth;
- barbed wire;
- tripwire.
In addition, anti-tank ditches are being constructed as a supporting element of the Baltic Defence Zone.
Roads, forests, fields, and other areas within the vicinity of the defensive structures will, to a large extent, remain accessible and usable as before.
Defensive structures are distributed across the terrain in a dispersed manner, taking into account potential adversary actions, environmental analysis, the operational plans of defence units, local conditions, and agreements reached with landowners.
Additional information:
Last updated: 02.04.2026
