Lithuania will push forward with developing an integrated air defence system over the next three years, a move that may require delaying some other planned military procurements, top officials said Tuesday following a meeting of the State Defence Council.
“We now have new planning assumptions, and we will look at how we can find ways to develop air defence capabilities, possibly at the expense of other capabilities,” Chief of Defence Gen. Raimundas Vaikšnoras told reporters in Vilnius.
Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas said some acquisitions “may be shifted around in time”, though neither official specified which procurements could be affected.
“We will do the planning and then map out the timeline,” Vaikšnoras said.
Kaunas emphasised that despite the reshuffling, Lithuania will still meet its key defence objectives: building a national military division by 2030 and preparing to host a German brigade by 2027.
The Lithuanian Armed Forces, the State Border Guard Service and the Public Security Service will all participate in developing the air defence architecture, according to earlier reports.
Deividas Matulionis, the president’s chief national security adviser, said the project will cost several hundred million euros and will be financed within current defence appropriations rather than through additional spending.
Next year’s draft budget allocates €4.8 billion for national defence, equal to 5.38% of GDP. The current defence budget stands at about 4% of GDP.
The planned system is expected to counter unmanned aerial vehicles as well as smugglers’ balloons, which have recently posed security risks along Lithuania’s border.
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