After the minister’s scandalous remarks, a new player is entering the fray for the multibillion-dollar deal

A light infantry division consisting of three brigades will be established in Lithuania, and a tank battalion will also be created. General Valdemaras Rupšys, who mentioned this back in May, emphasized that the establishment of a tank battalion is necessary for the country.

And this means the emergence of a new capability – for the first time since the interwar period. It also means significant additional costs not only for the acquisition of the tanks themselves, but also for training, infrastructure, ammunition, spare parts, maintenance, all of which, as the president’s top national security adviser testified Kęstutis Budrys, may require about 2 billion euros.

But already then, in July, the whole conversation turned not to the consideration of the need itself and the issues related to it, but to the fact that the Minister of National Defense Arvydas Anušauskas was talking about the proposal to send a letter of intent to the German Ministry of Defense regarding “Leopard” of the purchase of tanks.