Lithuania has unveiled plans to significantly expand its domestic defense industry as the Baltic country boosts spending on security.
The government in Vilnius is aiming to produce more ammunition, explosives and drones, as well as increase its capacity to build and repair heavy weaponry.
Key proposals include establishing several industrial production hubs, new military training zones and a venture capital fund to help finance the defense sector, state broadcaster LRT reported.
Defense minister Dovilė Šakalienė said the government would follow the principle of “make in Lithuania what you can,” adding that the first step was to produce the quantities of critical ammunition the country needs.
She estimated that 85,000 anti-tank mines were required for the defense of the state, which borders Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, with €50 million earmarked for this purpose.
As such, the first of the industrial clusters would focus on ammunition and explosives, the minister said.
“The goal is to have an integrated supply chain for explosives and explosive materials operating in Lithuania, which would allow us to independently supply the Lithuanian Armed Forces and our allies with critical large and medium-caliber ammunition, mines, and other explosives,” she said.
Other industrial hubs, to be developed later, would focus on developing drones, producing and fixing major weapons and boosting maritime defense by adapting the country’s civilian shipping industry for military purposes.
Discussions with Poland and others
Šakalienė said she had spoken to Polish officials about how “we are already capable of providing them with assistance and maintenance services when it comes to heavy weaponry,” while discussions are ongoing about cooperation with defense manufacturers in the U.S., Germany, Ukraine and the Nordic countries.
The minister added that Lithuania must embrace a “wartime mindset” in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. LRT reported that the country has set a goal of spending €12-13 billion more on defense by 2030.
Lithuania and its neighbors have expressed “deep concern” over a spate of alleged sabotage incidents targeting infrastructure in the Baltic Sea in recent months, which prompted NATO to launch a new mission to patrol the area.
Many ordinary Lithuanians are also keen to learn how to survive a potential Russian invasion, with interest in ‘civil resistance’ courses surging. Nearly 115,000 people signed up for such training in the first two months of 2025, compared to 30,000 over the whole of last year.
