Lithuania has announced the purchase of the Norwegian air defense system NASAMS in a €109 million deal with Kongsberg. The system is expected to be fully operational in 2021, reports armyreconition.com.

NASAMS is a ground based solution with air defense radars and surface launched medium range missiles. Such a system will be very useful in a tactical scenario, significantly improving the country’s ability to defend its airspace. The range of the missiles is limited, but the geography of Lithuania makes it possible to move the missiles around quickly and hide them almost everywhere, so the mere existence of the system will challenge the ability of an attacker to dominate the air space.

In addition to an air defense system, Lithuania is also in the process of acquiring the Boxer armored fighting vehicle and PzH 2000 howitzers.