According to the press release, the ministry is launching its mechanization scheme, which will include supplying two battalions of the mechanized infantry brigade Iron Wolf with new vehicles during the first phase by 2020.
Last week, the ministry sent letters to nine foreign manufacturers with a request to provide full information about the wheeled infantry combat machines they make. They were asked to give their replies by mid-October, with purchase deals to be concluded in 2015.
“The project to buy infantry combat vehicles is one of the long-term phases of modernization of Lithuania’s Armed Forces, which will for sure reinforce Lithuania’s defence capacities and commitments to NATO,” said Defence Minister Juozas Olekas.
He also emphasized that that supply of infantry combat vehicles to Lithuania’s military units is one of the main instruments to ensure implementation of national and collective NATO defence plans.
Lithuania’s Land Forces now use armoured transporters M113, which are designed to carry troops to the battlefield but they are not combat vehicles that would be used in the battlefield to destroy armoured vehicles, ensure free manoeuvring and protection of forces.
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