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The Center for Defense Investment announced a tender at the beginning of July for purchasing automatic firearms and accessories. In the framework of the same tender, firearms for PPA and divisions of the Justice Ministry will be bought.

A spokesperson for the ministry told BNS that the automatic firearms to be bought by the ministry are to be used by an armed unit of the prison service. The ministry is to buy up to a hundred 5.56 millimeter weapons. At present the prison service only has old automatic firearms in its arsenal, the spokesperson said.

The main task of the prison service is to fulfil tasks connected to the prevention, discovery and stopping of crimes as well as tasks that need to be prepared for. If necessary, the armed unit supports the Police and Border Guard Board and contributes to broad-based national defense. The unit consists of up to 100 people.

The Center for Defense Investment announced a tender at the beginning of July for purchasing automatic firearms and accessories for around 75 million euros. According to the plan, the center is to buy around 11,000 automatic firearms in 2018-2021. In addition, the framework agreement to be entered into has to allow purchasing up to 18,000 additional automatic firearms until 2024.