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Lithuania plans to purchase Norwegian air defense system: ministry

Xinhua, May 28, 2016 Adjust font size:

Lithuania will start negotiations with the Norwegian government on purchasing its medium-range air defense systems, the Lithuanian defense ministry announced Friday.

"The defense ministry's council on defense resources decided to start negotiations with Norwegian government on possible purchase of medium-range air defense systems NASAMS," announced the ministry in its press release.

The ministry has not revealed the possible size of the contract and the number of the systems it would like to purchase. According to local media, the system is capable of hitting the targets at the range of up to 40 km and at the height of up to 14 km.

According to Kongsberg, the manufacturer of NASAMS, the air defense system is in operational use in Norway, Spain, the United States, the Netherlands, Finland, and in production for Oman.

In recent years, Lithuania has stepped up its defense capabilities amid tensions in eastern Europe. In 2014, Lithuania agreed to buy Polish-made man-portable short-range air defense systems GROM and decided to increase its armed forces' stock of medium-range anti-tank systems by purchasing JAVELIN systems.

Last year, the country decided to purchase 88 German manufactured armored infantry fighting vehicles the Boxer. Enditem