Vaikšnoras urges Lithuania to maintain defence funding

Army Commander Raimundas Vaikšnoras has called for Lithuania to maintain or increase defence funding next year to prevent delays in developing military capabilities, LRT reported.

Lithuania has allocated 5.38 percent of gross domestic product to defence in this year’s budget. Politicians have not given a specific figure for next year but say spending will not fall below 5 percent of GDP.

“If we want our projects and the development of our defence capabilities not to stop, or do not want to give something up simply because we run out of one euro or another, we have to maintain the same level of funding. No less than the same, and perhaps even more,” Vaikšnoras told BNS.

“We all understand that doing more with less is difficult, or perhaps even impossible,” he added.

The State Audit Office said last week that the system for purchasing weapons and military equipment was failing to keep pace with the army’s needs as defence funding rapidly increased. The share of defence-sector procurements that were not completed rose two and a half times over two years, it said, adding that decisions could be made more quickly.

Vaikšnoras identified bureaucracy as the biggest problem.

“Bureaucracy kills speed, so sometimes we have good intentions, but in the end we have little to show for them or little that we can integrate into our defence. I am not throwing stones at anyone. It must be understood that this is a systemic issue that needs to be changed,” he said.

Vaikšnoras also said Lithuania’s air-defence detection capabilities had been strengthened in response to the continuing threat of drones entering the airspace of eastern NATO countries.

He said Lithuania can now detect objects at a much greater distance, particularly at low altitude. The country’s air force tracked a drone that entered Latvian territory, he said, while Baltic air-policing aircraft were launched from Šiauliai Air Base and destroyed it in a safe location where falling debris would not injure people or damage property.

Asked whether a drone entering Lithuania would also be destroyed in the air, Vaikšnoras said that was the general position, although the operational officer and pilot would assess the circumstances and the potential damage. In some cases, he said, allowing a drone to pass could be safer than causing debris to fall and injure someone.