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Lithuania intends to sign an agreement with the United States this week on the acquisition of four Black Hawk military helicopters, the Ministry of National Defense announced on Tuesday.
Lithuania will pay the US government 181 million for the platform in five years. (USD 213 million). The United States government has also allocated $ 30 million. Financial support of USD (approximately 26 million euros) for the project. The first helicopters can arrive in Lithuania in late 2024.
Lithuania announced plans to buy Black Hawk helicopters a year ago. Initially it was planned to buy six helicopters, but during negotiations it was decided to buy four. Lithuania will be able to buy two more helicopters in the future.
“This week, Lithuania plans to sign an agreement on the acquisition of a new helicopter platform from the US government. Under this agreement, the Lithuanian Armed Forces will purchase 4 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters with additional equipment, spare parts, training, repair and logistics package, ”said the Ministry of National Defense in a statement.
The new helicopter platform will replace the Mi-8T used in the Lithuanian Armed Forces. The operational resources of Soviet helicopters, which began in the 1930s, are exhausted and the operation is complicated: maintenance is expensive, often failures, repairs are risky due to the complicated supply of spare parts from Russia, says the Ministry of National defense.
The Minister of National Defense, Raimundas Karoblis, described the acquisition of these helicopters as “one of the most important elements of the modernization and strengthening of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, as well as a significant qualitative leap in the provision of the Armed Forces with modern and capable weaponry. “
“By abandoning the last Soviet relic and moving to the western helicopter pad, we are entering a completely new phase of the Lithuanian Air Force and keeping pace with the United States and other modern NATO-allied troops,” the minister said in a Press release.
According to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Valdemaras Rupšis, the new helicopters will allow the Lithuanian Armed Forces to conduct military training more effectively, use them to provide infantry support from the air, rapid launch of small military units, medical evacuation and other duties.
According to the general, they will also allow more efficient tasks in peacetime, such as search and rescue of people, urgent transport for organ transplants and fire fighting.
The Ministry of National Defense says the new platform will also enhance synergies with strategic and regional allies. The platform of the same manufacturer has been acquired by the armed forces of thirty countries of the world, such as Denmark, Latvia, Poland, Sweden. This will expand opportunities for exercises and joint operations with larger groups of troops, along with partners who also have Black Hawk in their arsenal.
“The fast, maneuverable and inexpensive Black Hawk UH-60M helicopters will also help the Lithuanian Armed Forces to respond much faster to requests for assistance and provide the necessary support during search and rescue efforts. Air Force helicopters on duty 24/7 are used to save the lives of people involved in accidents at sea, to search for missing or missing persons, to transport donor organs needed for transplants or fire fighting, “the ministry said in a statement.
The Ministry of National Defense has not yet detailed where and when exactly the contract will be signed. Negotiations on the Black Hawk were conducted at a high political level. On the eve of this announcement by the Ministry of National Defense, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced on Twitter the dismissal of the Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper.
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