Vilnius is planning to buy the HIMARS rocket artillery systems from the United States, the Lithuanian Defence Ministry has confirmed.
“Lithuania is planning to acquire HIMARS from the US at the same time as Estonia and Latvia,” the ministry said in a written comment.
Vilnius will sign the contract “separately” from the other Baltic States later this year.
“All three Baltic countries have agreed on the development of such a capability in the region, in cooperation with each other, and are counting on US support and/or co-financing of the project,” the Defence Ministry said.
Earlier, both Estonia and Latvia confirmed the countries would be seeking to buy the HIMARS systems.
The M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) has proven to be effective in Ukraine after destroying multiple Russian command posts and ammo depots.
The systems, dubbed the “game changer” by Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, can hit targets 80 kilometres away, or up to 300 kilometres if supplied with advanced ammunition.
HIMARS systems supplied by the US have been partly responsible for slowing the Russian offensive in Ukraine, military experts say. (LRT/Business World Magazine)
