March 2016 has been an important month for the Armed Forces of Lithuania. First there was the news that Lithuania joined the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR) of the Boxer Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV). Second, there was the news that mandatory conscription was reintroduced, making it sure that the Lithuanian Armed Forces remain fully manned. A third decision was to increase the military budget.
Boxer IFV
On 11 December 2015 the Lithuanian government made the decision to purchase 88 Boxer IFV’s in order to equip two army battalions. This purchase fits in the plans of Lithuania to create a large mechanized force that can act as a conventional deterrent against Russia as well as having an army that can be deployed fast and with enough firepower.
There are several advantages for Lithuania by becoming a member of the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR). As part of the programme Lithuania will benefit from several advantages such as smaller development and maintenance costs, sharing technologies and better interoperability with the other participants of the Boxer IFV programme such as the Netherlands and Germany. Also a benefit will be that the overall cost will diminish because of large-scale orders made jointly by several countries.
Delivery of the first batch of Boxer IFV’s is expected to be delivered to the Lithuanian armed forces at the beginning of 2017.
Mandatory conscription
Halfway March the Lithuanian state defence council took the unanimous decision to reintroduced mandatory military conscription permanently rather than for five years as was decided a year and a half ago. Lithuania hopes that this measure can boost the country’s active military reserve up to around 30.000 soldiers.
The decision to reintroduce the mandatory conscription still has to pass the Seimas, the country’s parliament but is most likely to be adopted. Earlier the Lithuanian Defence Minister, Juozas Olekas, opposed the mandatory conscription but voted in favour on Monday 14 March. The Defence Minister still expects that the military service will be based on volunteers. With the current figures it seems that Lithuania will need to draft around 500 people every year to keep its armed forces fully manned.
Increasing the defence budget
Also on Monday 14 March the state defence council took the decision to increase its military budget. An additional 150 million euros will be allocated for the defence budget of 2017. For 2016 the defence budget amounts 575 million euros, counting for about 1.5 per cent of the GDP. With the additional 150 million euros the new defence budget for 2017 will be 725 million euros or 1.89 per cent of the GDP.
Lithuania’s goal is to reach 2 per cent of the GDP being spent on defence in 2018. This means that in 2018 it needs a budget of 767 million euros or an additional increase of 42 million euros to reach the 2 per cent GDP benchmark that NATO asks of its members.
