Lithuania To Buy Long-range Radars

Lithuania To Buy Long-range Radars (NSI News Source Info) HELSINKI - November 19, 2008: Lithuania has approved $44.6 million in initial funding to cover the cost of bolstering the country's national air surveillance capability through the acquisition of two long-range radar systems. The planned equipment purchase will replace the technically obsolete Soviet-manufactured P-37 and P-18 long-range radars currently in use with the Lithuanian Armed Forces. The purchase is being arranged through the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A), which invited bids from producers in NATO member and nonmember countries on Nov. 17. The successful bid will be selected and contracts signed in 2009. "We expect that the new radar systems will be installed and communication infrastructures built by the end of 2015," Defense Minister Juozas Olekas said. "The further improvement of air surveillance and defense remains a top priority goal within the national defense system. The new capability is required to ensure reliable air surveillance, as well as to ensure the joint control and defense of NATO airspace," Olekas said. The radar systems will be installed on existing Lithuanian Air Force radar sites, said Brig. Gen. Arturas Leita, Air Force commander. "The final acquisition costs will become known when the contract with the manufacturer is signed. The cost will come out of the annual defense budget," Leita said. The NC3A will procure and install the radars under a contract signed with the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense in December 2007, which will commission the radar equipment to NATO standards and procedures.