Lithuania intends to acquire multirole military ships from Norway, Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė said on Monday after a meeting with her Norwegian counterpart Tore O. Sandvik in Lithuania.
“We are working very intensively, looking into our options to acquire ships from Norway. We are currently looking into certain proposals, and the Norwegian side is also looking into the ship models and how this process could move forward,” Šakalienė told a joint press conference after the meeting.
“These are Vanguard-class modular ships, which (...) can be used for various missions. Our aim is to make this the optimal platform. Our fleet is small, so the ships need to be versatile enough to be able to perform different missions, so that our Navy has a ship that is tailored to our needs and at the same time is able to cooperate effectively with our other allies, depending on the type of tasks and the complexity of the missions,” the minister said, adding that decisions on the acquisition of such ship are expected by the end of this year.
The decisions “will significantly strengthen our military capabilities, as well as enable our defence industry to cooperate effectively in the context of industrial cooperation”, Šakalienė continued.
“If a large part of the components could be produced in Lithuania, except, of course, for weapon systems, it would certainly allow our domestic industry to get involved and we would benefit a lot,” she added.
The plan is for Lithuania to use the same ship models as Norway, Šakalienė said.
“To avoid situations again where were buy one non-standardised model of some military equipment and then we have a lot of long-term problems with logistics, supply, repairs and so on,” the minister explained. “One of the key things is Norway’s decision whether they would use the same ship model. Judging from the way all the discussions are going on now, we should definitely have a decision from Norway by the end of the year, and then our decisions would follow.”
Air defence
Vilnius has previously agreed with Oslo on the acquisition of NASAMS air defence systems and has also signed a contract with Norway’s Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace.
“We are going smoothly through all three phases. Next year, we should receive the second delivery of NASAMS air defence systems and then the third in 2028,” Šakalienė said.
The two ministers also discussed Norway’s participation in Baltic Air Policing mission. Sandvik said that Norway would assume greater responsibility for national and regional security over the upcoming years.
“A large part of our increased spending will go to investments in systems, like frigates, submarines, vessels, helicopters, main battle tanks, and weapons,” he said.
Speaking of Oslo’s contribution to the Baltic states’ air defence, Sandvik said that this would be discussed with other Nordic countries.
“We will look at that again when we have full operational capability of the F-35 fleet. Also, I will have a talk with my Nordic colleagues about it because we have now, I think, 250 fighter jets altogether, and we need to coordinate our air policing strategy,” the Norwegian defence minister underlined.
Lithuania, Norway and eight other European countries last week signed a memorandum aimed at strengthening the protection of critical underwater infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. It provides for enhanced cooperation to increase the resilience of cables and pipelines on the seabed, secure supply chains, conduct underwater monitoring, and expand rapid repair capabilities.
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