Lithuania may be a small country
But actually it has a lot more than it might seem
And to continue here on FTD facts to learn more about the great country of Lithuania
We are gonna figure out how powerful this country actually is when it comes to its military
how's it going guys and welcome to FTD facts the channel where I look at people cultures and places from all around the world and
In this case, we're looking at militaries now for those who are here for the first time
My name is Dave Walpole and for the people who are coming back
Maybe people who just watched our Lithuania video and are now checking out this one
Well, welcome back and let's get learning more about this great amazing country now today
We are looking at Lithuania and seeing how much power it has in terms of military. Now for me. The overall country fascinates me
But more specifically its military because although it is small its developing and it's developing fast
Basically to give you a little bit of history of the military of Lithuania. It was founded on November 3rd 1918
However, its current form of military came on April 25th 1990. This was after lethwei
Nia basically said goodbye Soviet Union we're going and doing our own thing
That's when they got their independence and to give you an idea of how this military power actually works
We got a look at its hierarchy
because as of today the commander and chief of this military power is
president Dalia good about skate as well when it comes to the Minister of National Defense that falls under
Raymundus Cairo 'bless as well. The chief of defense is lieutenant general Janos zookas
now overall
Lithuania has a population of approximately two million eight hundred and thirty-two thousand people and for this military the manpower equals approximately
1.8 million people with approximately 1 million
400,000 people that are classified as fit for service and when I give you this number for fit for service
I'm not talking specifically about males
I'm talking about males and females because as a matter of fact when it comes to Lithuania
Females can also be in the military as well as men
Did you know that however when it comes to the total military personnel of the Lithuanian Armed Forces it comes in at approximately?
38,000
750 people also when it comes to the military the youngest that one can
Volunteer for service is 18 years old and as well you may wonder is a conscription actually in the country
Well, actually it is although it was actually abolished in 2008 in
2015 it was reintroduced into the country. And for the number of conscripts there is approximately
3,500 to 4,000 people who serve the military every single year now for the conscription most of the conscripts are anywhere between
19 to 26 years old and as for anyone else such as the women they can also
Volunteer at 18 they don't get conscripted at 18
No, and as well when they do sign up it is approximately a nine-month service
now
Let's break down this total personnel and look at it a little more individually because of that when it comes to the active personnel
There's roughly eighteen thousand seven hundred people
However with that there's approximately twenty thousand individuals that are within the reserve units for these reserves
You'll see volunteers take 20 to 50 days per year in service as well
Apparently if you volunteer for the reserves, the minimum contract is 3 years and the maximum is 5 of course, by the way
All of this is based off of an approximation from 2018 numbers
Just so you guys know this is the most up to date that I could get now of the military itself has four different major
Divisions there's the land division the Air Force the Navy and even Special Forces groups
also, by the way, guys
just letting you know this video is kind of a part two in our playlist of Lithuania if you want to learn more about the
Great country of Lithuania hit this card right here
It's also going to be in the description box below or at the end of the video, but let's continue
Shall we so I'm going to dive right into the equipment and the hardware that these different divisions use now
I want to give you guys a little bit of a heads up currently right now. Lethwei. NIAAA is going through a major modernization
So some of these numbers may not be completely exact also on top that militaries don't like to give out complete over a hundred percent
Information about what they have. They got to keep something secret. So nothing is quite on the nose. So for the Air Force
unfortunately, Lithuania has a rather small one with an Eric strength of approximately 11 of this they have absolutely zero fighters that they
currently own
However, their attack craft sits at approximately four
of course if you go to global firepower
They will state that there is only one but it is actually four
The reason for this is because they have four attack craft the Aero l-39 these fighters also double up as trainers
But the thing is there's a major plan to get 16 of these for the country to possess themselves
So that is something new that's coming very shortly
However, let's keep in mind that the country is a major contributor and a participant of NATO and although the country doesn't have its own
Fighters NATO countries actually rotate the amount of fighters that they bring in to Lithuania
For example this all started in 2004 and during that time they had four
F-16 fighters that were from Belgium currently right now. I hear those four fighters are actually given not from Belgium anymore
But now it's the Dutch that are doing their rotation, but keep in mind
This is part of a program known as the Baltic Air Policing
Program which is pretty much a transitionary period for the Baltic States all the other NATO countries were looking over it
Until the Baltic countries can provide Air Force and Air coverage for themselves
Now of this the country also has a four to nine transports in which the biggest transport they use is the Alenia c-27j
Of course on top of that they have six helicopters all six of them classify as utility choppers in which they use the Eurocopter
As350 five and the mil me eight helicopter
So you can get a general idea when I was saying that this country is
Developing because it doesn't have a lot of equipment well with that in mind
Let's go down to the land and let's take a look there cuz they got some
similarities going on down there as they do up in the air because
For Lithuania, this country also doesn't possess any form of main battle tank. However with that in mind in
2017 Germany wasn't talks to send tanks to Lithuania as part of a NATO program. Of course
Germany's actually done this multiple times before with other European and NATO countries
they form what is known as a joint kind of group where they have the people from that country and
German soldiers working together as one unit
however prior to that announcement Germany had also sent
1,000 troops to Mon
The border of Russia because of the annexation of Crimea now when it comes to armored fighting vehicles
this country does have quite a bit coming in at
432 now a lot of these armored fighting vehicles are classified as armored carriers in which they have quite a bit of
M1 113 S&M five seven seven two version twos
However, those older carriers are not the only thing that they have they also have what is known as the boxer now
This is a German and Dutch vehicle. They say there's about 80 of them in the country with three that are for training purposes
however, I'm not sure if these 88 are within the country yet because in
2017 they said they were going to be shipping them with plans to have overall 91 of these armored fighting vehicles by
2021 on top of that their version of the box there's a little bit different from what
Germany has they classify theirs as the Vilkas which is armed with an Israeli remote control station featuring a 30 millimeter
Cannon known as the Rafael Samson MK 3 so as for artillery they use approximately 21
self-propelled artillery
I know this artillery the country uses the PZ H
Which is also going to be given to them by Germany and they will have these complete by 2019
however for towed artillery for Lithuania
They have 54 which they use the M 101 howitzer originally 72 of these came from Denmark
But as of today roughly eighteen of them are used for parts as for rocket projectors
There are zero that we know of that are within the country
However, there is major talks of them getting the United States multi rocket system vehicle Navy. Let's jump down
Let's take a look at that as well. So for Navy assets it comes in at approximately seven currently as of today
They have no aircraft carriers forget two destroyers Corvettes or even submarines
however
They do have what is known as three mine warfare?
Vessels with one of them doubling up as a command ship and for combat
purposes when it comes to the Navy they also have four patrol vessels now here is the big question does lethwei nia possess nukes or
Major weapons of mass destruction of any kind let's find out when it comes to nuclear weapons
This country does not possess any at this time although back in
1997 they were accused of selling nuclear weapons other countries in today's world
The country does not have any nuclear program nor does it have even any biological weapons or even?
Ballistic missiles or missile launching platforms as a matter of fact Lithuania at one point did have a nuclear facility
But as of today it's closed
So they don't even have a nuclear facility because that one was shut down in 2009 due to safety concerns
however, there is talks of having a joint nuclear facility for the three Baltic countries, of course as of
2018 Lithuania is a major supporter of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty
On top of that. They are also part of the Comprehensive Test Ban which prevents future testings of nuclear weapons
also when it comes to chemical weapons
It's a major supporter of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the biological and toxin Weapons Convention
one of the reasons why the country also does not possess any ballistic missiles or launching platforms is because the country has signed the
International code of conduct against ballistic missiles as well. I covered this earlier, but I just to go into further
Explanation of how important this is
but the way Nia is a part of NATO which means it has a lot of allies you tick off one of these countries you
Tick them all off kind of and let's be real Lithuania is a part of the European Union
That is one economy that you just do not want to mess with and it's got friends with Germany
You don't want to mess with Germany and although a lot of you guys are probably saying yourself. Okay, let's wainy
Yeah, it's still a very small small small military
one thing that's really interesting about it is its budget because for the budget in 2018
It's at anywhere between one point zero eight three to one point one zero six billion dollars
Which is very surprising when you think of the size of this military because it puts its GDP spending on military at two point zero
Six, which let's be real for
European and NATO countries
They want over 2% of the GDP spent on their military
and as a matter of fact some of the countries within NATO and the European Union don't even get to
2% So I was like, wow that's actually impressive. So there you have it everybody
That is me. Just looking at the country of Lithuania and seeing how much power it actually has
My name is Dave Wawa. And thank you everybody for tuning in and learning about the great country of Lithuania
now if you really like this video
Like I said hit that like button and on top of that
This is a I guess a second video that we've done on the thwe dia
so if you want to learn more about
Lithuania go in the description box below or at the end of this video and you guys can check out our Lithuanian playlist
So other than that, thanks for watching. Hit the subscribe button
If it's your first time here, maybe that bail notification and I'll see you in the next one. Okay. Bye
Alright so you made it to the end now if you're just interested in Lithuania
Or you're from Lithuanian, you want to know more about your own country and your people?
Culture and all that stuff hit this playlist and check it out
We got other videos here other cool playlists for you to check out but on that we'll see you in the next one. Okay. Bye