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Lithuania to purchase 88 German IFVs

Xinhua, December 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

Lithuania's State Defense Council decided on Friday that the country's armed forces will purchase the German manufactured armored infantry fighting vehicles (IFV) the Boxer.

"The State Defense Council has unanimously decided to order the defense minister and the head of the army to initiate negotiations with Artec," Valdemaras Sarapinas, chief advisor to the Lithuanian president on national security, announced after the council's meeting.

Artec is the manufacturer of the Boxer. Lithuania is to buy 88 of these IFVs. According to the defense ministry, the purchase procedure is to take four to 10 months from now.

"After the council's decision the implementation of the army's most important modernization project so far will rapidly move forward," Major General Jonas Vytautas Zukas, chief of defense of Lithuania, told local media after the meeting.

The purchase of the IFVs will be the largest in the history of Lithuanian armed forces. Juozas Olekas, minister of defense, didn't reveal the exact price of the purchase, but noted that the total price will be lower than previously announced 500 million euros (550 million U.S. dollars), reports Lithuanian National Radio LRT.

According to Olekas, the first vehicles are expected to arrive in 2017. By that time the army plans to prepare the personnel capable of operating the vehicles, said the minister.

The purchase reflects Lithuania's increased efforts to strengthen its defense capabilities amid changed geopolitical situation in the Eastern Europe.

The small Baltic country has also ramped up its defense spending recently. On Thursday Lithuanian parliament approved the state budget for the next year which allocates 575.2 million euros to defense needs. The sum amounts to 1.48 percent of GDP and exceeds the defense spending in 2015 by 150 million euros.

The country has set itself a goal to increase defense spending up to 2 percent of GDP by 2018. Endit