Latvia Buys Missiles for 91 Million — Liepāja Market Vendors Offer to Install Them Next to Sausage Stand

While Riga bureaucrats are still learning to count 105.5 million US dollars, our Defense Minister Andris Sprūds has already returned from Oslo with a new toy — an anti-ship missile system for 91 million euros. The Norwegians, it turns out, are willing to sell us weapons that shoot 185 kilometers away. That's almost to Riga, but fortunately we are civilized people.

The system consists of a fire control center, launch equipment, and radar systems. Local Liepāja market vendor Valdis comments: "Well okay, 91 million is a lot, but you see — everything in our market is fresher than in Riga and half the price. Maybe we could install those missiles next to my herring? They also shoot far — all the way to Grobiņa."

Interestingly, 70% of the costs are covered by the US, but we pay the rest ourselves. This means each Liepāja resident will pay about 14 euros for this system. For this money you could buy three "Charlie" pizzas or two complete tramway ticket sets for the whole year.

The missile is equipped with a 226-kilogram warhead and can maneuver in the final phase of flight. As our experienced sailor Jānis says: "We already have wind that maneuvers in Liepāja — now we'll have missiles too. Let's just hope they don't get confused about direction and shoot at our own port." The system will be installed next year, but they're not announcing the specific location yet — possibly they're thinking between Karosta and Ziemupe, so as not to disturb summer tourists.