Tuesday, December 28, 2021
Costs in the millions
Bundeswehr wants to build barracks in Lithuania
The Bundeswehr is stationed in Lithuania with more than 1000 soldiers. The mission serves to deter Russia. The quotas are exchanged every six months. In order to improve logistics and to set an example, Germany and Lithuania are now planning to build a paved joint location.
Germany and Lithuania are planning to build permanent barracks for the NATO battle group to be deployed in the Baltic country. The operations command in Schwielowsee near Potsdam confirmed that soldiers from the multinational association were to be housed in the new facility together with Lithuanian units. According to the plans, the plant is to be built near the city of Rukla. So far, planning costs have been deposited in the single-digit millions for the project, said a spokesman. The project is to be paid for jointly by Lithuania and Germany. The total costs cannot yet be quantified.
In response to the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea by Russia in 2014 after the coup in Ukraine, NATO stepped up the security of its own eastern flank. Joint combat units were stationed in the three Baltic states and Poland as part of an “enhanced forward presence”. They are exchanged every six months, partly because the NATO-Russia Founding Act does not allow Allied troops to be stationed permanently in Eastern Europe. As a so-called framework nation in Lithuania, Germany provides around half of the 1200 NATO soldiers there.
Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht had visited the German soldiers of the combat unit in Rukla before Christmas. The trip took place against the background of growing tensions with Russia, which can be seen in the Russian troop deployment on the border with Ukraine and the migration crisis fueled by Belarus on the borders with Poland and Lithuania.
The combat formation at Rukla is currently spread over two locations. The Bundeswehr hopes that the construction of a new operational property on the site of a military training area will result in greater efficiency, relief for military traffic and freed up capacities for the Lithuanians’ own training programs. The rotation principle of the troops of Germany and other NATO nations will not change.