German Military Deploys to Lithuania for the First Time Since WWII
In December 2023, Berlin and Vilnius agreed to a roadmap action plan that called for the stationing of thousands of foreign troops in Lithuania. Now, Germany plans to station 105 main battle tanks (MBTs) in Lithuania.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly criticized NATO‘s eastward expansion, and he is likely further enraged by the announcement that German military forces will be permanently deployed to NATO ally Lithuania as part of a newly formed Bundeswehr unit, the 45th Armored Brigade.
Last October, Berlin released details of a plan to acquire an additional 105 Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks (MBTs), along with some armored vehicles, their crews, and supporting personnel in Lithuania.
The 5,000-strong armored brigade was activated on April 1 during a ceremony outside the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, and a temporary headquarters was established.
That HQ may be temporary, but the Bundeswehr‘s deployment will be permanent, the first for German forces since the Second World War. Though Berlin had deployed troops to Afghanistan during the Global War on Terror (GWoT), it was not seen as a permanent deployment.
That situation is far different with Lithuania, as it had been part of the former Soviet Union and maintains a border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Russia‘s key ally, Belarus. Military planners within the international military alliance have suggested that the Kremlin could mount an assault through the Suwałki Gap, the sparsely populated area along the border of Lithuania and Poland, to cut off the land bridge from Central Europe to the Baltic states.
Germany Defending the Baltics
In December 2023, Berlin and Vilnius agreed to a roadmap action plan that called for the stationing of thousands of foreign troops in Lithuania. This major shift in German defense policy avoided the permanent deployment of combat troops abroad.
“We have a clear mission: to ensure the protection, freedom, and security of our Lithuanian allies on NATO‘s eastern flank,” Bundeswehr Brigadier General Christoph Huber told DPA, the German press agency, per Politico. “In doing so, we also protect NATO territory—and Germany itself.”
Currently, just around 150 troops are under Huber‘s command, but that number is expected to increase to 500 by the end of this year. The Bundeswehr has said the 45th Armored Brigade would be fully operational and wartime-ready by 2027.
The forces will operate out of Lithuanian military facilities until a new military post is constructed at Rūdninkai, about twenty miles south of the capital.
Germany Increases Its Defense Spending
Berlin has also signaled that it could significantly increase its defense spending, up from around 2.12 percent of its GDP last year, which was already a significant increase from the 1.51 percent it had spent in 2022, driven by Russia‘s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Despite having the most significant European economy, Germany only ranked fifteenth of the thirty-one NATO members at the start of 2024. Still, lawmakers have sought to boost its defense budget further.
Lithuania had already been one of the twenty-four NATO members that met the two percent GDP spending target the alliance had called for in 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea. At the beginning of the year, Vilnius announced it would significantly bolster its defense spending to between five and six percent beginning in 2026 due to Russian aggression.
That would put Lithuania at the top of the alliance‘s spenders, passing current leader Poland, which spends more than four percent, and Estonia, which pays 3.43 percent.
“The possibility of Russian military aggression is still real but not imminent. We need to increase our efforts to strengthen defense and deterrence significantly, devoting more resources to this end,” President Gitanas Nausėda said in January.
“Our membership in the NATO alliance also assures our security, but it will only be effective if we are prepared to defend ourselves.”
Having a German armored brigade will also help!
About the Author: Peter Suciu
Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: [email protected].
Image: Shutterstock/ Michele Ursi.