Lithuanian Air Force

Lithuanian Air Force Karinės oro pajėgos
Coat of arms of the Lithuanian Air Force
active	1919-1940 Realignment in 1992
Country	Lithuania
Armed forces	Lithuanian Army
Type	Armed forces ( air forces )
management
Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces	Defense Minister (in case of war: President of the Republic of Lithuania )
Military Commander of the Armed Forces	Lieutenant General Valdemaras Rupšys
Air Force Commander	Colonel Dainius Guzas
insignia
Aircraft cockade
flag
Aircraft
education	L-39
Transport aircraft / helicopter	L-410, C-27J, C-17 ( SAC ), Mi-8, AS365

The Lithuanian Air Force ( Lithuanian Karinės oro pajėgos ) is a branch of the Lithuanian Army and is subordinate to the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense . The Air Force Commander is Colonel Dainius Guzas. The most important base of the air force is the Šiauliai airport .

history

Lithuanian ANBO III designed by Antanas Gustaitis

In connection with the independence of the state, the establishment of the Lithuanian air force began in November 1918. The troop's first aircraft came from Russia and Germany . In the 1920s and 30s the air force was expanded and during this time it had three larger bases and three reconnaissance and fighter aircraft and two bomber squadrons. Some of the machines used at the time were even locally produced, based on designs by Antanas Gustaitis .

Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940 without resistance . The independent Lithuanian air force was dissolved - parts of the aircraft and the crews were used by the Red Army in the period that followed.

Lithuanian Antonov An-26

When Lithuania regained independence in the early 1990s, the air force was also reorganized. The personnel was initially recruited from members of the Soviet air force , mostly from Lithuania .

After initially taking over some Soviet facilities, the facilities were modernized and expanded over the next few years (construction of further radar stations , concentration and renovation of the airfields). This was and still applies to the equipment, which was gradually expanded and modernized with newly and second-hand equipment (aircraft, helicopters, radar devices and weapon systems). In addition, especially since the country joined NATO in 2004, the standards of the alliance system etc. a. implemented gradually in the monitoring of the airspace.

Air Force Commander

Dainius Guzas

Since its reconstruction in 1992, the Lithuanian Air Force has been led by the following officers:

Surname	period of service	comment
Zenonas Vegelevičius	January 2, 1992 - May 15, 2000
Edvardas Mažeikis	May 16, 2000 - June 16, 2002
Jonas Patašius	June 17, 2002 - September 22, 2002	representative
Edmundas Adomynas	September 23, 2002 - August 17, 2003	representative
Edvardas Mažeikis	August 18, 2003 - September 5, 2004
Jonas Marcinkus	September 6, 2004 - September 22, 2005
Artūras Leita	January 20, 2006 - January 9, 2011	officiating from September 2005
Edvardas Mažeikis	May 10, 2011 - June 10, 2014	2. Term of office
Audronis Navickas	June 10, 2014 - February 2017	suspended since November 2016 and represented by the Chief of Staff (Devis Martusevičius)
Dainius Guzas	since May 29, 2017

tasks

The task of the Lithuanian air force is to monitor, control and defend its own airspace, as well as to support the land and sea forces, especially in transport and search and rescue tasks.

The Air Force currently only has training and transport aircraft - no combat aircraft. That is why the part of air surveillance and defense that is carried out by combat aircraft is currently carried out by other NATO partners (see Air Policing Baltic States ).

organization

structure

The Lithuanian Air Force is currently divided into the following areas:

• Airbase Airport Šiauliai
  After the withdrawal of Russian air forces were initially taken several bases. At the beginning of the 21st century, the focus was exclusively on Šiauliai and this base gradually began to be modernized.

• Air defense
  The air defense battalion was set up in the year 2000th To equip and train the unit, a cooperation with Sweden had been entered into beforehand.

• Airspace surveillance and control
  The airspace surveillance and control command in its present form dates back to the year 2000. Monitoring of the national airspace began in 1992. A total of six radar stations have been set up over the years to monitor Lithuanian airspace and its possible violation.
  To improve the performance of the unit, the stations in Antaveršis ( Prienai district ), Degučiai ( Šilutė district ) and Ceikiškės ( Ignalina district ) began to be modernized and equipped with new 3D long-range radar systems. This work is expected to be completed by 2021.

• Air Force Depot The air force
  repair and supply facility in its current form was founded in 2004.

Ranks

	Generals			Staff officers			Officers
Rank	Generolas guiding fantasies	Generolas majoras	Brigados generolas	Pulkininkas	Pulkininkas guide fantasies	Majoras	Kapitonas	Vyresnysis guiding fantasies	Leadership fantasies
	Lieutenant General	Major general	Brigadier General	Colonel	Lieutenant colonel	major	Captain	First lieutenant	lieutenant

	NCOs
Rank	Seržantas majoras	Viršila	Štabo seržantas	Štabo seržantas specialistas	Vyresnysis seržantas	Vyresnysis seržantas specialistas	Seržantas	Seržantas specialistas	Grandinis
	Sergeant Major	Staff Sergeant	Sergeant Major	Sergeant Major	Oberfeldwebel / Feldwebel	sergeant	Staff NCO / NCO	Sergeant	Corporal

	Teams
Rank	Vyresnysis eilinis	Eilinis	Jaunesnysis eilinis
	Hauptgefreiter / Obergefreiter	Private	Aviator

equipment

Aircraft

The following aircraft were used by the Lithuanian Air Force at the end of 2015:

Aircraft	photo	origin	use	version	active	Ordered	Remarks
Planes
Let L-410		Czechoslovakia	Short-haul transport aircraft	L-410 RRP	1 (2)		In 1992 two L-410s were taken over from old stocks of the National People's Army and fundamentally overhauled in 2006.
Alenia C-27J		Italy	Medium transport aircraft	Spartan	3		Delivered by Alenia Aeronautica from 2006 to 2009 .
Aero L-39		Czechoslovakia	Trainer aircraft	L-39C L-39ZA	- (4) 1 (2)		Four L-39Cs acquired from Kyrgyzstan in 1992 are currently no longer operational. Of two L-39ZA purchased in 1998, one crashed in 2011. The purchase of another L-39ZA has already been discussed.
helicopter
Mil Wed-8		Russia	Transport helicopter / SAR	Mi-8MTW-1 Mi-8T	2
Eurocopter AS365		France	SAR	AS 365 N3 +	3		Delivered in 2015 (partly replaced the Mil Mi-8).

As part of the Strategic Airlift Capability Program, Lithuania and the other participating countries also operate three C-17 Globemaster IIIs that can be used for strategic military air transport.

Air defense

Lithuania currently has the following short-range defense systems for air defense:

• Stinger
• RBS 70

In addition, two NASAMS medium-range rocket batteries are to be purchased by Norway by 2021 . Lithuania is expected to spend around 110 million euros on the acquisition and necessary training.

radar

The following systems are used to monitor the airspace:

• Long-range targeting radar P-37
• Long-range targeting radar P-18
• Medium-range target acquisition radar TRML-3D / 32

By 2019 ^[obsolete] , five additional short-range radar systems from Israeli production are to be installed in Varėna , Švenčionys , Vilnius , Jurbarkas and Pagėgiai . In addition, in cooperation with NATO, three next-generation 3D long-range radar systems are to be purchased by 2021.

International cooperation

BaltNet

BaltNet (Baltic Air Surveillance Network) is the radar-based military air surveillance system of the armed forces of Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania that has existed since 2000 . It has been integrated into the air policing of the North Atlantic Alliance since the Baltic states became NATO members .

The BaltNet headquarters, the Regional Airspace Surveillance Co-ordination Center (RASCC), is located in Kaunas .

Air Policing Baltic States

Since Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined NATO in 2004, the surveillance and security of the airspace has been taken over by other NATO members. The reason for Air Policing Baltic States is that the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian armed forces have been able to carry out air surveillance through cooperation in the Baltic Air Surveillance Network (BALTNET) since 2006, but due to the lack of airborne weapons systems, they are unable to carry out visual identification or air sovereignty (e.g. by intercepting or pushing away) yourself.

Strategic Airlift Capability

The Strategic Airlift Capability is an initiative of several NATO member states and two partner nations (Sweden and Finland), which signed letters of intent to jointly purchase and operate three C-17 Globemaster IIIs. These machines operate in a similar manner to NATO's AWACS aircraft - with multinational crews and a multinational military command structure and are stationed at the Pápa Air Force Base in Hungary .

literature

• Karinés Oro Pajégos - from 1918 until today . In: Fliegerrevue Extra . No. 5 . Möller, Berlin 2004, p. 30-55 .
• Interview with Artūras Leita, the then Air Force Commander from 2009 came.lt (PDF)
• World Air Forces 2017, Flight Global, 2016, p. 12 flightglobal.com (PDF)

Web links

Commons : Lietuvos karinės oro pajėgos  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website of the air forces (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Vadovybė (Lithuanian)
2. ↑ Lietuvos karo aviacija 1919–1940 metais , accessed on November 13, 2014 (Lithuanian).
3. ↑ Nuo 1992 metų Karinėms oro pajėgoms vadovavo (Lithuanian)
4. ↑ ^{a b} Publication of the Ministry of Defense of November 27, 2015, accessed on December 14, 2015 (English)
5. ↑ Transportinis lėktuvas L-410 UVP Turbolet (Lithuanian)
6. ↑ Third C-27J "Spartan" message on the website of the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense of October 20, 2009, accessed on December 8, 2015 (English)
7. ↑ Lithuanian Air Force plans to buy L-39s , message on airheadsfly.com from April 18, 2014, accessed on June 25, 2014 (English)
8. ↑ Lithuania begins round-the-clock SAR operation of AS365 helos ( memento of the original from January 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Message on janes.com from January 14, 2016, accessed on January 23, 2016 (English) 
9. ↑ Oro gynybos ginkluotė - Overview of the anti-aircraft weapon systems on the website of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, accessed on November 20, 2016 (Lithuanian).
10. ↑ Lithuania to procure additional NASAMS combat and inert missiles from Norway , online report on the website of the Lithuanian Armed Forces of December 27, 2018, accessed on December 27, 2018 (English)
11. ↑ Publication of the Ministry of Defense of March 29, 2018, accessed on March 29, 2018 (English)