All Lithuanian border guards should receive NATO-standard compliant weapons until the end of 2023, Rustamas Liubajevas, the commander of the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service (VSAT), has said.
“We are planning to fully meet our needs next year,” he told reporters.
The Lithuanian Armed Forces transferred 200 G-36 automatic rifles to border guards some time ago, with over 500 more to be handed over in the near future.
The military plans to start handing over the remaining 1,187 weapons to be purchased this year in December, the Defence Ministry has said.
The VSAT commander said the weapons received until the end of this year would cover slightly more than half of the service’s needs, adding that more than 1,000 automatic rifles should be purchased next year.
Currently, most of the VSAT officers are armed with Russia-made Kalashnikov-type automatic rifles.
“These are old weapons made in the 1960s and 1970s. There are a lot of concerns about the accuracy of the weapon and other things,” Liubajevas said.
“Servicing and ammunition supply for these weapons is also a problem. They use ammunition that doesn’t meet NATO’s standards, which creates certain problems in the event of war,” he said.
The war in Ukraine has also exposed these issues, according to the commander.
The new weapons have been purchased using funds, 3.5 million euros in total, allocated to the Defence Ministry for this purpose this year.
“The decision to arm our border guards with NATO-standard weapons was taken by the Interior Ministry and the whole government,” Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite told reporters.
“As we understand that it would be irrational for the Interior Ministry to purchase such an amount of weapons, the funding was placed under the Defense Ministry,” she added.
According to Defence Minister Arvydas Anusauskas, such weapons are also acquired for military personnel, so a larger purchase helps to secure a lower price.
However, “the factory that supplies the weapons has limited production capacity”, the defence minister said.
“We’d want more weapons and faster for our military, but unfortunately this cannot be done,” he added.
Anusauskas and Bilotaite also discussed the Lithuanian Armed Forces’ assistance in protecting the border, and the participation of the Interior Ministry’s bodies in military exercises.
“On September 16-17, we will hold a joint exercise to test the interoperability of our systems, which is very important. This will continue in the future,” the interior minister said.
Lithuania’s border protection force consists of around 3,500 officers. (LRT/Business World Magazine)
