Lithuania begins strengthening air defense systems

Lithuania started construction of a new radar post infrastructure on Friday.

The Baltic country will install 3D long-range radars at three of its radar posts. NATO standard radars will replace old Soviet-era long-range radars, according to Lithuania's defense ministry. The new infrastructure is to enhance Lithuania's air defense surveillance and control of the country's airspace.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite says the new system will facilitate NATO's air policing mission in the Baltic airspace and allow the country to contribute more to the alliance's air defense system.

"Lithuania becomes safer," said Grybauskaite in an official ceremony at the construction site in central Lithuania.

Juozas Olekas, Lithuanian defense minister, said this is a pivotal step in modernization of the country's armed forces.

"We begin a new phase in the overall air defense surveillance capability improvement program for Lithuania," Olekas was quoted as saying in a press release from the ministry.

Officials declare the country's air surveillance system will be boosted with cutting-edge advanced technology. The radars will allow to see more uncooperative targets and at much further distances, according to the defense ministry.

"We can mark a radius of 400 km around the radar and see which territories it will cover," Colonel Audronis Navickas, the commander of the Lithuanian Air Force, told Lithuanian National Radio LRT.

The radars are planned to be finished next year and to be fully operational by 2019.

Lithuania is a host country for NATO's air policing mission carried out in Baltic air space. Endit