Lithuania begins acquisition of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

“Acquisition of these systems will significantly improve the Lithuanian military intelligence capabilities. The Lithuanian Armed Forces currently doesn’t have any tactical unmanned aircraft suitable for reconnaissance,” says Lithuanian Minister of National Defence Arvydas Anušauskas.

The purpose of reconnaissance requires the UAVs to weigh below 150 kg (Class I) and meet the requirements of “mini” and “small” types of systems. Such aircraft detect and identify, track targets, allow to assess the impact of actions, monitoring of artillery fire and artillery fire adjustment and correction.

The “mini” type weighs up to 20 kg with an effective range of up to 25 km and altitude of up to 1000 meters. The “small” type weighs above 20 kg with an effective range of up to 50 km and altitude of up to 1500 meters.

The cost of concurrent acquisition of both, “mini” and “small” types of UAVs, may amount to approx. 36 million o Euros, based on a carried out market analysis.

The Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence and the Armed Forces attaches great importance to acquisition and integration of new reconnaissance and warfare instruments aiming to improve combat capabilities of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. Another planned combat drone acquisition currently underway is carried out with the U.S. Government to procure Switchblade UAVs.