Lithuania’s Ministry of National Defense has unveiled plans to spend around €3.1 billion on ammunition and explosives over the next decade, keeping in mind lessons learned from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Ministry of Defense of Lithuania reported about this.

As part of the planned progress of National Defense System, the Ministry of National Defense foresees spending over €3.1 billion ($3.4 billion) on military stockpiles which would comprise various required calibers of ammunition in the coming decade.

This amount will represent at least 12% of the entire annual defense budget over the next ten years.

“The qualitative change in the approach to capability building brings in the complex approach to armament projects, therefore the cutting-edge weaponry system acquisitions for national defense are carried out and the corresponding ammunition is purchased with it,” states Minister of National Defense Arvydas Anušauskas.

The Minister notes that military stockpile building has been among the top priorities in recent years and is receiving increasingly more MoD attention and appropriations each year.

That is associated not only with the tense regional security situation but also with the wide-ranging modernization in the Lithuanian Armed Forces: acquisition of the NASAMS mid-range air defense system, HIMARS High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, Vilkas Infantry Fighting Vehicles, JLTV Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, PzH2000 and Ceasar howitzers, tactical drones, and other capabilities.

The Ministry of National Defense of Lithuania especially focused on military stockpiling last year in the wake of the dramatic change in the geopolitical situation. 2022 was a record year for stocking up, receiving almost one fifth of the defense budget (the considerable 18.3%) added up with the appropriations committed on top over the year.

In comparison, the financing amounted to 17.7% of the defense budget in 2021 and 11.2% in 2020. The major part, or 90%, of the stockpiles is ammunition, with the remaining 10% constituted by different engineering items and explosive materials.

Update of the fleet of armored vehicles

In addition, Vilnius also plans to purchase Boxer armored fighting vehicles in a deal that could more than double the country’s army’s fleet of modern armored vehicles.

The Lithuanian Ministry of Defense plans to purchase 120 Vilkas infantry fighting vehicles, which are modified German Boxer armored fighting vehicles. They plan to purchase the equipment at the expense of an option within the framework of the contract signed in 2016 for the purchase of 88 wheeled armored personnel carriers for the amount of €386 million.

Back in April, it was announced that the main contract for the purchase of 82 Vilkas infantry fighting vehicles (two training and four command vehicles) had been completed. The last batch of 23 vehicles should be delivered to Lithuania already this summer.