News archive (2012 - 02)

From February 27 to March 2 in the Adolfas Ramanauskas Warfare training center in Nemenčinė international exercise's BALTOPS 2012 main planning conference is ongoing. It involves more than 120 personnel from 13 countries who will coordinate the final scenario and operations of the exercises.

The exercise will be held on June 1-16 in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Germany's territorial waters, the event is organized and led by the United States (U.S.) Naval forces in European Command (U.S. Naval Forces Europe).

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February 27 and 28 Commander of the Lithuanian Air Force Maj Gen Edvardas Mažeikis will pay a visit to the NATO Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) in Uedem, Germany.

During the visit Lithuanian Commander will meet with Commander CAOC Lt Gen Dieter Naskrent and his Deputy Brig Gen Marian Jeleniewski. Lithuanian Commander plans discussing with CAOC representatives NATO’s Air policing mission in the Baltic States and the Baltic Region Training Events (BRTE) which are also supported by the Combined Air Operations Centre. The nearest BRTE is planned to take place in Lithuania on March 27 and 28.

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February 22, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe (DSACEUR) Lieutenant General Sir Richard Shirreff visited Lithuania-led Ghor Provincial Reconstruction Team camp in Chaghcharan.

Delegation also included Brigadier General Luciano Portolano, Commander ISAF Regional Command-West, Governor of Ghor province Dr. Abdullah Haiwad, commanders of local security forces.

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February 23, Minister of National Defence Rasa Juknevičienė and President of the Lithuanian Publishing Association Lolita Varanavičienė presented the Patriot’s Awards to Ruta Sepetys and Nomeda Marčėnaitė, winners of a patriotic and civil spirit inspiring books contest, during the Vilnius Book Fair. Prizes were also presented to the publishers of the winning books.

Novel by R.Sepetys “Between Shades of Gray” (ALMA LITTERA publishing house), was the winner in the grown-ups category and in the book for children category the jury unanimously elected “A Doll” by Nomeda Marčėnaitė (Tyto alba publishing house) the winner of the Patriot’s Award.

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February 19-20, eight students from Poland (General Tadeusz Kosciuszko Land Forces Military Academy and the National Defense University) and one from Czech Republic, Brno Defence University came to the General Jonas Žemaitis Lithuanian Military Academy to study under the Erasmus exchange program.

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This winter in Afghanistan's Ghor province was very cold and snowy. According to local inhabitants, they did not have such winter already for several years, the snow level reached above 60 cm. Most villages and remote areas due to snow-covered roads are completely isolated. This weekend soldiers of Lithuanian-led Ghor Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) patrolling with Afghanistan National Army soldiers in Chaghcharan area several times helped to pull out transport of local population stuck in snow.

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February 21, Commander in Chief of Lithuanian Navy Rear Admiral Kęstutis Macijauskas participated in the Baltic States Naval Forces Commanders working meeting in Riga (Latvia).

At the meeting Commander in Chief of the Lithuanian Navy Rear Admiral Kęstutis Macijauskas with his colleagues Commander of the Latvian Naval Forces Captain (Navy) Rimants Štrimaitis and Acting Commander of the Estonian Navy Commander Ivo Varka shared information on last year naval forces activities, Baltic states naval forces co-operation under the trilateral Baltic Naval Squadron BALTRON project, also issues related to the current year activities of the squadron and joint sea training were discussed. Commanders also discussed next year planning and budget of BALTRON, as well as squadron commanding personnel and vessel related matters.

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“The decision to prolong the Baltic Air Policing mission for an unlimited period of time is a huge achievement reflecting long-term NATO’s commitments to security of the Baltic States. After extensive discussions with the allies we have convinced them that we are prepared to share the burden of ensuring security and related costs with them,” said Minister R.Juknevičienė.

“NATO’s Air Policing is an example of the so-called Smart Defence. This concept allows focusing on Host Nation Support rather than investing into fighter-jet procurement projects,” the Minister said. “However, event the increased portion of our support as host nation can not be equaled to the huge costs that would accompany procurement and maintenance of fighter-jets on our own.”

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Video report from state awards at the Presidential Palace and the following commemorative events in S. Daukanto Square and video report from the commemorative events in front of the Ministry of National Defence (Video reports by Lukas Kalvaitis).

Official commemoration of the Restoration of Lithuania’s Statehood Day took place in Vilnius, members of the Honour Guard Company hoisted flags of the three Baltic States – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - in commemoration of February 16. The formal events were attended by high-ranking officials of Lithuania, foreign guests, and leadership of the national defence system, and a crowd of guests and citizens of Vilnius.

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February 15, the third rotation of the Lithuanian-led multinational Air Training Team (ATT-3) was deployed on the mission in Afghanistan from the Lithuanian Air Force’s (LITHAF) Šiauliai Air Base. The unit will provide training for local Afghan helicopter pilots and maintenance crews.

The new shift includes 8 troops from LITHAF Air Base and one representative of Latvian military.

Just like the previous groups ATT-3 will be deployed at Kandahar Airfield and continue training Afghan National Army members to conduct squadron level helicopter operations.

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