The boundaries of new military training areas in Lithuania’s Tauragė and Šilalė Districts will be reviewed, Deputy Defence Minister Renius Pleškys has said, adding, however, that it will be impossible to satisfy everyone.
In mid-July, the Lithuanian parliament started debating a new bill, drafted by the Defence Ministry, on the establishment of two military training areas in Tauragė and Šilalė Districts. The State Defence Council has already given its approval on the matter.
“We will try to look at the proposed areas and move them at least 100 meters in some places. The activities in that zone would have to be coordinated with the ministry. We understand that it would be inconvenient, so where we can, we will try to move it so that the military zone does not interfere with the activities,” Pleškys told the Parliamentary Committee on Rural Affairs on Tuesday.
“The areas are minimised to the maximum, without encroaching on private areas, and there are other interests of different public groups, as they still want to reduce them. In principle, there is nothing further to say. We will not be able to satisfy everyone,” he added.
Defence Minister Laurynas Kasčiūnas has said that new training areas are needed because the military lacks space for training. He has also vowed to enshrine in the law that training areas will be used for manoeuvres. This was also echoed by the deputy minister on Tuesday.
“Since the training areas are small enough, we do not plan any shooting ranges or other activities that would significantly interfere with the activities of the surrounding population. We will try to find some wording,” Pleškys noted.
Such an expectation has been expressed by local residents and the mayors of Šilalė and Tauragė Districts. They fear that the status of the training areas might change in the future.
Some local communities and hunters are also opposed to the creation of these military areas, as hunting would be prohibited in them.
The new training areas will accommodate military units ranging in size from a company to a battalion, but they will not have the status of a military territory, so they will not have firing ranges, will not be used by heavy military equipment, and will be open to the public with the military’s permission.
Following the adoption of the law, the training areas in Tauragė and Šilalė Districts will be recognised as projects of special national importance. This status would help speed up their construction, Pleškys pointed out.
In his words, the existing training areas in the country are insufficient, and the need for new ones has arisen due to the increase in the number of allied troops in Lithuania, the growth of the number of conscripts and the number of reserve personnel, as well as the acquisition of new military equipment.
The training area will cover an area of 4,304 hectares in Tauragė District and 2,677 hectares in Šilalė District.
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