Germany Establishes Permanent Military Forces in Lithuania for First Time Since WWII.

Announced in 2023, Germany has for the first time since World War II permanently deployed soldiers outside its borders. On Tuesday, April 9, 2024, the first twenty soldiers arrived in Lithuania, to prepare for the arrival of more than 4,800 soldiers and their families by 2027.
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german chancellor Scholz visiting German troops in Lituania  (Picture source Reuters )

“This is an important day for the brigade, for the Bundeswehr, and for NATO,” stated Boris Pistorius, the German Minister of Defense, to the soldiers gathered in front of an A400M headed for Vilnius. This is indeed the first time a Bundeswehr brigade has been stationed on a long-term basis outside of Germany. In Mali or Afghanistan, soldiers were deployed for six months. Now, the idea is for families to follow.

The deployment of this brigade aims to strengthen NATO's deterrence capability on its eastern flank. Surrounded to the south by the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad and Belarus, Lithuania is only connected to Poland by a 65-kilometer-long corridor, the Suwalki Corridor. If Russia were to invade this passage, the Baltic States would be cut off from the rest of the European Union and Poland.

The first detachment of German volunteers joins the 800 soldiers prepositioned as part of NATO; these first 20 will be joined by 150 people stationed in Lithuania by October, then about 5,000, including 200 civilians, in 2027. By comparison, the Lithuanian military has 21,000 soldiers, including draftees and reservists.

The brigade sent by Berlin will include two combat tank battalions, equipped with Leopard 2A7 tanks, and a NATO combat battalion, under German command. The NATO battalion has been deployed in Lithuania since 2017. Currently, there are 1,500 NATO soldiers prepositioned, and this battalion will ultimately be under German command.

This deployment comes at a critical time for the Bundeswehr. Considered a flagship project of Boris Pistorius, the German Minister of Defense, the sending of this brigade raises questions in Germany as the Bundeswehr is already lacking in everything. Each year, the report from the parliamentary commissioner for Defense, Eva Högl, highlights the excessively low availability of military equipment, the lack of stocks, and the recruitment difficulties of the German army.

This deployment coincides with Boris Pistorius unveiling a reform of the Bundeswehr last week. The Ministry of Defense will establish a single operational command, which will merge two previously separate structures dedicated to national defense and foreign interventions. This decision materializes the refocusing of the Bundeswehr on defending the country, facing the Russian threat. Following the American model, Boris Pistorius also announced the creation of a force dedicated to cyberspace, in addition to the army, air force, and navy. Its personnel and budget have not been specified, but its existence is consensual as Russian cyberattacks proliferate in Europe.

Defense News April 2024