In case of military aggression, about 5,000 Lithuanian volunteers are ready for engaging in guerrilla warfare on their territory.
“Allied Spirit”
Photos that show the Lithuanian volunteers preparing to defend the Motherland were recently published in the Twitter of the US Special Forces in Europe Command.
This is a photo from the exercises “Allied Spirit VIII”, which took place in January-February 2018. They took place at the German test site Hohenfels with the participation of almost 2,420 soldiers and officers from the United States, Lithuania, Canada, the Czech Republic, Albania, Denmark, Italy, Poland, Romania and Britain. The main goal of the exercises was to increase the effectiveness of military cooperation on the battlefield.
However, it is obvious that the maneuvers also showed some characteristic features of the Eastern NATO member states’ preparation for the great war in our region.
Guerrilla warfare
The photo shows soldiers in camouflage and civilian clothes attacking enemy transport columns, using assault rifles, machine guns, training versions of anti-tank grenade launchers. Also partisans hunt for low-flying aircraft and helicopters. They are firing from imitations of portable anti-aircraft missile systems “Stinger”.
The soldiers are not only dressed in civilian clothes, but they use civil vehicles for reconnaissance and sabotage operations. Preparations are also being made for work with explosives and mines.
“As foreign commentators say, exercises using such tactics during maneuvers with the allies show the role special forces and territorial defense formations will play in the potential conflict. This is especially true for the Baltic countries, for which the threat of an attack from Russia is considered particularly high,” the Polish military information portal defence24.pl wrote.
To show that Moscow’s actions will cause NATO’s military reaction, multinational battalion groups – NATO security forces – were deployed in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland. At the same time, the actions of partisans in case of aggression should slow down the occupation of the Baltic states and give the Alliance time to collect troops and organize assistance.
Defense on all fronts
Vilnius, in addition to training volunteers, also works to strengthen its regular troops — it was decided to return the compulsory draft. This will allow to form new units of the country’s Armed Forces. As a result, while in 2016 Lithuania had 16.5 thousand soldiers, in 2018 this amount is expected to increase by 20 percent.
Also, the technical capabilities of the northern neighbor’s army are getting strengthened: new anti-tank systems, modern armored vehicles, and artillery are bought.
The paramilitary organizations, such as the Union of Lithuanian Riflemen (Lietuvos Šaulių sąjunga), which was first established in 1919, were reinforced, and then restored in 1989. Every citizen of the country, who is mentally and physically healthy, has the right to purchase firearms, including rifles. Now civilians possess more than 100,000 units of various rifles and pistols.
Defending homes
As for the National Defense Volunteer Forces (KASP), these are units of the territorial defense, which number more than 4,700 people and are integrated into the Armed Forces of the country. On the one hand, their aim is to provide military training of civilians, to meet the needs of time during the man-caused and natural disasters and promote the patriotic education of young people.
As you can see, the KASP fighters are preparing for guerrilla warfare and are getting intelligence and sabotage training for actions in the enemy rear.
Unfortunately, we do not observe anything like this in Belarus: the state is suspicious of civil initiatives in the sphere of the country defense, it is afraid to give citizens the right to possess weapons, and attempts to create an effective territorial defense have not yet yielded results.
Alyaksandr Helahayeu,belsat.eu