Lithuania is planning to acquire most of the engineering equipment to impede the movement of a potential enemy this year, as well as set up more than 20 counter-mobility parks.
Mines would also be used for counter-mobility on the Russian-Belarusian border, bridges and roads would be prepared, and border areas would be reforested in the long term.
The Baltic states agreed to coordinate these measures when their defence ministers signed an agreement on a common defence line in January.
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This political declaration fits in with the 2022 agreement signed by Lithuania’s political parties, and it stipulates that Lithuania must deploy a physical barrier, surveillance systems, and counter-mobility measures, according to Deputy Defence Minister Žilvinas Tomkus.
“It is up to each state to decide what measures it will take at the national level to strengthen the protection of border areas and potentially disrupt the movement of adversaries. But they need to inform their allies, namely Lithuania should inform Latvia and Estonia,” Tomkus told BNS.
Counter-mobility parks
According to the deputy minister, “everything is now moving towards counter-mobility parks”.
In September, a pilot counter-mobility park was presented in Vilnius District, and journalists were shown the so-called Czech hedgehogs, reinforced concrete blocks and dragon’s teeth, and concertina rolls.
Laurynas Kasčiūnas, chairman of the parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defence (NSGK), said at the time that 18 such parks would be built in the country by the summer of 2024, at a cost of 18 million euros. However, the number of planned parks was later increased to 20.
“It was calculated that more parks were needed to provide more manoeuvre,” Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the National Crisis Management Centre (NKVC), told BNS.
Officials do not disclose the locations for the new parks due to security reasons.
According to Tomkus, however, the two areas in question are the Kaliningrad strip and Lithuania’s border with Belarus.
“The goal is to prepare the engineering parks within a certain period of time. The counter-mobility budget is planned for ten years ahead. Our aim is to do as much as possible in the coming years,” he said, adding that Lithuania plans to spend 1.5 percent of its defence budget on the acquisition of counter-mobility equipment in 2024, ie around 32 million euros.
“We expect to have the counter-mobility parks this year, and tenders are being launched for the purchase of equipment. We will be able to buy most of it if it’s made in Lithuania. If it’s made abroad, we may not be able to do everything,” Vitkauskas of the NKVC said.
Mines, bridges, roads, forest
A separate counter-mobility element considered by the Defence Ministry is the use of mining systems to prepare areas to block enemy movement if necessary.
Civilian counter-mobility measures are also being considered, and they would be put in place on roads and bridges.
Tomkus says the agreement signed by the Baltic ministers also stresses the importance of natural constraints, and Lithuania mulls using drainage ditches for counter-mobility, as well as foresting border areas.
According to Vitkauskas, mines would not be stored in counter-mobility parks, but they would be brought from warehouses designed to store explosives.
“We can take mines from the current reserve formed for the Armed Forces, and then we would rebuild the stocks. The procurement of both land and sea mines is planned this and next year, which is an ongoing process,” the NKVC head said.
As for the preparation of bridges and roads, Vitkauskas says the goal is to make them impassable.
“These are certain engineering solutions and they include fixed pop-up poles, as well as making bridges unusable to stop the movement of adversaries to some extent,” he explained.
Meanwhile, it will take at least 50 years for reforestation and drainage ditches to be effective.
“The focus is on keeping the 20-kilomentre stretch from the Russian and Belarusian borders free of logging, keeping strips of trees along roads, which, if cut down, could stop the movement of adversaries,” the NKVC head told BNS.
Defence Minister Arvydas Anušauskas says Lithuania is ahead of Latvia and Estonia in terms of counter-mobility, but the Baltic defence line remains a conceptual idea.
“We are buying equipment, and we are a bit further advanced than our neighbours. They are catching up with us. The Baltic defence line is still a concept and all of this needs money,” the minister said last week.
Around 600 bunkers in Estonia
Roland Muroff, a spokesperson for Estonia’s Defence Ministry, told BNS last week that the country planned to build a number of fortifications, including around 600 bunkers and various counter-mobility measures.
In addition, storage areas will be provided for non-explosive ordnance and other counter-mobility equipment.
“As much as possible we also seek to use the natural obstacles in northeastern and southeastern Estonia. No placement of explosive ordnance on the border is planned in Estonia during peacetime. The planning process is underway this year and construction is scheduled to start next year,” he said.
Latvia has not yet made any public announcements about its plans in this area, and the country’s Defence Ministry did not respond to BNS’ request for information.
Following the signing of the agreement on the Baltic defence line, Latvian Defence Minister Andris Sprūds said that “this initiative will significantly boost our capability to protect our borders”.
“This is a joint project for Baltic countries, which will also advance NATO’s collective defence,” he said.
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