The Drive:
The U.S. State Department recently approved the potential sale to Finland of more than $800 million worth of RGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow surface-to-air missiles, Mk 41 vertical launch systems, and other associated items.
Depending on how that country decides to proceed with its Squadron 2020 naval modernization program, some of those systems could go into a new class of ice-breaking multi-purpose corvettes, as well as end up on older ships as part of various planned upgrade projects.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the U.S. military’s main foreign military sales office, announced the possible arms packages in three separate notices in February 2018. The announcements say that the 100 RGM-84Q-4 Harpoon Block II+ Extended Range missiles, plus another dozen older RGM-84L-4s that Finland would upgrade to that standard itself using conversion kits, would arm its existing Hamina-class missile boats and shore-based coastal defense batteries.
