According to a recent report on the website of the US Defense Post, the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense plans to develop UAV technology through a variety of measures in order to cope with the increasingly severe geopolitical challenges, improve national defense strength and promote the transformation of defense capabilities.
The Lithuanian Ministry of Defence said that it would improve the combat capability of UAVs from two aspects.
On the one hand, strengthen the professional training of UAV operators. The Lithuanian Ministry of Defence plans to establish a UAV training center in its military academy to provide professional training for UAV operators by offering relevant courses. It is reported that the training will officially start in September this year. In addition to Lithuanian armed forces, ordinary citizens will also participate in the training. In this regard, Lithuanian Defense Minister Anussoskas said that Lithuania's goal is to enable at least 1000 ordinary citizens to master professional UAV operation skills through business training. After completing the above courses, the Lithuanian Ministry of Defence will also provide them with professional training for combat UAV pilots through the "upgraded" course. To this end, the Lithuanian Ministry of Defence will allocate 100000 euros (about 108000 dollars) to subsidize non-governmental organizations' UAV operator training institutions, and urge other schools to offer UAV related courses.
On the other hand, promote the development of domestic UAV industry. As part of the plan to improve the combat capability of UAVs, the Lithuanian Ministry of Defence will provide about 7 million euros for domestic UAV manufacturers to support the production and R&D of UAVs. In the future, Lithuania will focus on developing reconnaissance and surveillance UAVs and "first person perspective" UAVs.
The "first person perspective" UAV is based on the modification of civil UAV, controlled by video glasses and remote controller, and can be used for military operations only by installing explosives or other small warheads. At present, the "first person perspective" UAV has been used in some local wars and regional conflicts. The biggest advantage of this type of UAV is that it is easy to operate, deploy and carry. It is reported that Lithuanian citizens can use "first person perspective" UAVs to participate in combat after participating in relevant courses and training.
In recent years, the Lithuanian Ministry of Defence has attached great importance to the operational use of UAVs, and constantly promoted the procurement and updating of UAVs. In 2022, the Lithuanian Ministry of Defence launched a procurement process for tactical reconnaissance UAVs, planning to purchase 26 small UAVs and 9 micro UAVs to improve the intelligence collection capability of the Lithuanian army. Among them, the mini UAV weighs about 20kg and has an effective range of 25km; The small UAV weighs more than 20kg and has an effective range of 50km. In December 2022, the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense signed an agreement with the United States to purchase a batch of "Spring Knife" 600 UAVs at a cost of about 44 million euros, becoming the first European member of NATO to purchase such UAVs.
While promoting the improvement of UAV combat capability, the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense is also focusing on the development of anti UAV systems. Lithuanian NT Service Company and Israeli enterprises jointly developed the "Sky Cleaner" anti UAV rifle. The gun is mainly used to interfere with the wireless command and control and navigation system of the UAV. It weighs 6.5 kg, has an operating range of 3 km to 5 km, and can work continuously for 1 hour. NT Service also launched an omnidirectional anti UAV jamming device with a weight of 11.3kg and a range of 500m. In March this year, the Lithuanian Ministry of Defence launched an "emergency procurement" of anti UAV systems, investing 8.03 million euros to purchase 351 anti UAV systems and 130 anti UAV rifles from NT Service.
In 2024, the Lithuanian government proposed a new national defense development plan, specifying that the proportion of defense expenditure in GDP will increase to 3% in the next six years. It is expected that by 2029, defense expenditure will further reach about 2.8 billion dollars, accounting for 4.4% of GDP. This proposal to accelerate the development of UAV technology is a concrete manifestation of its new national defense development plan, which may aggravate geopolitical tensions and increase the risk of conflict confrontation. (Zhou Qikai and Zhang Naiqian)
(Editor in charge: Chen Yu, Liu Yuanyuan)
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