Bad experience of Ukraine, Georgia taken into account: Lithuania buys up-to-date German howitzers

Lithuania is set to buy several dozen self-propelled howitzers PzH2000 from Germany. Our neigbour is also about to significantly raise military spending in 2016.

The sides are scheduled to sign the deal in Vilnius on Tuesday, delfi.lt reports.

Taking into account the change in geopolitical environment and the negative experience of Ukraine and Georgia, there is a need to augment artillery’s potential, Lithuanian Minister of National Defence Juozas Olekas said.

The Panzerhaubitze 2000 (‘armoured howitzer 2000’), abbreviated PzH 2000, is a German 155 mm self-propelled howitzer developed by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and Rheinmetall for the German Army. It is particularly notable for a very high rate of fire; depending on barrel heatingit can fire between 10 and 13 rounds per minute continuously. Its target accuracy may reach 3 meters.

The extreme firing range of the Soveit self-propelled 152 mm howitzer 2S19 Msta-S, which entered the military service in Belarus, is about 40 meters. It has a similar rate of fire, but there is no declassified information about its target accuracy. Our country has 12 Msta-S howitzers.

The Lithuanian army will also get 26 armored command post vehicles M577 V2 and six evacuation tanks BPZ. All vehicles have been used by the German armed forces. The country’s defence budget is estimated to grow by 35 percent to EUR 574 million next year.

Belsat.eu