Lithuania to spend 112 million USD on air defense systems

Lithuania plans to spend more than 100 million euros (112 million U.S. dollars) on Norwegian and American mid-range air defense systems NASAMS, the country's defense minister said on Sunday.

The Baltic state's defense ministry informed BNS news agency of the spending on NASAMS.

"We plan to spend a bit more than 100 million euros," Lithuanian Defense Minister Juozas Olekas told BNS.

According to the ministry, two of the country armed force's batteries, military units of a size of a company, would be equipped with the NASAMS systems.

The country plans to acquire two rocket launchers for one of the batteries, each battery is to receive a fire distribution center and radar, according to the ministry's information provided to BNS.

In May, the Lithuanian Defense Ministry announced the country starts negotiations with the Norwegian government on purchasing the medium-range air defense systems NASAMS.

According to local media, the system manufactured by Kongsberg is capable of hitting the targets at the range of up to 40 km and at the height of up to 14 km.

Currently, the country's armed force only has short-range air defense systems.

In recent years, Lithuania has stepped up its defense capabilities. It has purchased Polish made man-portable short-range air defense systems GROM and decided to increase its armed forces' stock of mid-range anti-tank systems by purchasing JAVELIN systems.

The Baltic state also acquired German 155 mm self-propelled howitzers PzH 2000. In August, Lithuania agreed to purchase 88 infantry fighting vehicles (IFV) the Boxer from the German-Dutch manufacturer Artec. (1 euro = 1.12 U.S. dollars) Endit