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Lithuanian army to buy 340 German UNIMOG trucks

Xinhua, January 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

Lithuanian armed forces will spend around 60 million euros (65 million U.S. dollars) to purchase 340 tactical 5-tonne trucks from German manufacturer Daimler in the coming five years, announced the country's defense ministry on Tuesday.

According to an announcement from the ministry, the agreement to buy UNIMOG trucks was signed at the end of 2015.

The decision to buy UNIMOGs means the country will renew its truck fleet with the same type of vehicle.

"The requirement of vehicles and trucks in the Lithuanian armed forces has significantly increased with the establishment of another infantry brigade in the Lithuanian land force and as a result of the process of manning military units," said the defense ministry in the press release noting that trucks are one of the most used type of vehicles in the armed force.

The first trucks are expected to arrive this fall with the remaining fleet to be delivered by 2021.

The ministry has also revealed the army will purchase several hundreds of used military vehicles from the Netherlands to supplement its fleet. The ministry didn't disclose the price of the purchase.

The procurement project to purchase 340 UNIMOG trucks reflects bold presence of German manufacturers in Lithuanian armed force. Last month, the country decided to purchase the German manufactured armored infantry fighting vehicles (AIFV) the Boxer. The purchase of 88 AIFVs worth less than 500 million euros is the largest in the history of the country's army.

In recent years, the Baltic country has increased its defense spending citing security threats in Eastern Europe. In 2016, Lithuania's defense spending is to amount to 575.2 million euros, or 1.48 percent of GDP. The country has set itself a goal to increase defense spending up to 2 percent of GDP by 2018. Endit