On October 14 Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of the Republic of Lithuania and Commander-in-Chief of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, made a visit to the Grand Duchess Birutė Uhlan Battalion stationed in Alytus. The first high-readiness response force of Lithuania - a newly formed battalion combat team which will become operational as from this November - was presented at the event also attended by Minister of National Defence Juozas Olekas, Chief of Defence of Lithuania, Chief of the Joint Staff, commanders of services and commands, and other representatives of the Lithuanian Armed Forces.
The response force will comprise two battalion combat teams, and elements of air force, special forces and logistic support. A battalion combat team is a battalion-sized military unit formed for combat tasks and including maneuver units, reconnaissance, fire support, combat provision, air defence, engineer, and other capabilities. Each of such teams will comprise roughly 800 military personnel, one of them will be formed mainly by the Lithuanian Grand Duke Algirdas Mechanised Infantry Battalion, the other - by the Lithuanian Grand Duchess Birutė Uhlan Battalion.
The response force of the Lithuanian Armed Forces will be able to react at a moment's notice and will have sufficient combat capacity to prevent hostile actions within the territory of Lithuania in peacetime by responding to modern threats - or threats of unconventional warfare.
The deployment location of the response force will be determined by the level of threat and the region of the country. With low alert level the soldiers on standby for the force will be serving in their bases or away from their locations of service, however, they shall maintain readiness to report for their headquarters under designated terms if so. The response force will be ready for deployment within 2 hours from receiving such order. During activation the response force will report to the Joint Staff of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, while the staff of the Lithuanian Land Force will ensure their readiness prior to activation.
Related press releases on the MoD website:
http://bit.ly/1o7BgVT;
http://bit.ly/ZWCJnj.
Spokesperson to the Chief of Defence of Lithuania Captain Mindaugas Neimontas, 00370 682 25359.
Photo credits: Ieva Budzeikaitė (1; 2; 4; 5; 6; 7) and Alfredas Pliadis (3)
