Germany’s Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann opened Lithuania Defense Services (LDS), a centre for servicing military vehicles, in the central town of Jonava on June 29.
The centre will provide logistical and maintenance services for combat vehicles owned by Lithuania and its NATO allies, the Defence Ministry and the Lithuanian Armed Forces say.
“Allied deployments in Lithuania require infrastructure; this is not just about living and training conditions,” Lithuania’s Chief of Defence Lieutenant General Valdemaras Rupsys said in a press release.
“Today, we have opened a workshop where key military equipment will be repaired,” he said. “The German companies’ investment in this project reflects the right approach to peacetime and wartime maintenance of weapons systems and equipment.”
According to Deputy Defence Minister Vilius Semeska, the next step is to manufacture certain parts in Lithuania.
“One of our key conditions in purchasing military equipment is that it is serviced to a high standard and that spare parts are supplied quickly in the country,” the vice-minister said. “We have been urging Germany’s companies to invest in Lithuania for more than a year until we finally got it.”
“The next step is cooperation between companies in Lithuania and the manufacturing country and the production of certain components in our country,” he added. (LRT/Business World Magazine)
