Lithuania moving from individual counter-mobility measures to coherent defense line

VILNIUS - Lithuania is moving from the development of individual engineering capabilities to the development of an integrated line of defense when it comes to border protection, Defense Vice Minister Tomas Godliauskas says.

"Today we are moving from the idea of individual engineering counter-mobility measures, which we have been developing so far, to the in-depth development of an integral defense line," he told a press conference on Thursday.

In his words, the Baltic Defense Line being developed together with Latvia and Estonia and Poland's East Shield project will be merged at the military operational level in the fall.

"We are already connected at the political level," Godliauskas said.

According to the vice minister, Lithuania's defense line will consist of three echelons.

The first protection zone will include measures developed up to 3 km from the external state border, the second - up to 20 km and the third - up to 50 km.

"We want to create a three-tier operational capability that combines natural barriers, defensive barriers, technical barriers and, consequently, a legislative framework to enable institutional coordination, military and institutional coherence," Godliauskas said.

The first echelon of defense will consist of anti-tank ditches, counter-mobility measures such as dragon's teeth, as well as minefields, fortified strongpoints with trenches.

The second and third echelons include drainage ditches, parks of engineering measures, bridges prepared for bombing, blocked bridgeheads, fortified strongpoints, and trees prepared for roadside clearance.

"As far as the first echelon in particular is concerned, what we want to do in the near future is to implement the blocking of border checkpoints, to prepare for the blocking of the roads leading to the Belarusian-Russian border, and to prepare for the installation of strongpoints," Godliauskas said.

"I would also include in the defensive barriers our objectives to reinforce the protection of the approaches to the port of Klaipeda, and here we plan measures are already being procured," he said.

Air defense is also a major focus when it comes border protection, and investments worth hundreds of millions of euros are planned in this area, Godliauskas said.

"Air defense, anti-drone systems, surveillance and destruction. In the long-term perspective, we had already foreseen investments of close to 300 million euros, and right now the defense minister is also coordinating another huge package of investments worth 400-500 million euros to strengthen the border and air defense systems in general," the vice minister said.

The entire plan is to be developed over the next decade with a budget of 1.1 billion euros, with a large part of it to be spent on the acquisition of mines. It was previously reported that 800 million euros would be spent on them.

According to Godliauskas, the installation of the defense line will be funded from the national defense budget, borrowed funds and loans from the Security Action Programme for Europe (SAFE).