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Under this agreement, the parties commit to "cooperate in educating and informing the public about Lithuanian security and defence policy, the Lithuanian Armed Forces and its role in ensuring the country's security, in developing civil society and its awareness, and in introducing innovations in the field of defence".

 

Brigadier General Alvydas Šiuparis, a Commander of the Training and Doctrine Command, thanked the new colleagues for their serious approach to national defence and their understanding of the geopolitical situation in Lithuania and the challenges it faces. He also stressed the need for unity:

 

"We have our own land, from which no one will take us away. We have powerful allies, we are not alone. Our strength lies first and foremost in our people, our traditions, our history and, of course, our capacity to do our duty.

 

The Army alone will not be able to defend our country, especially in the face of such an existential threat. We all have our responsibilities, and it is very important that we have the opportunity to work together with institutions that are engaged in very interesting and necessary work."

 

 

 

The representative of the Chief of Defence noticed that the signing of the agreement is particularly important in the light of the hostilities in Ukraine. In modern warfare, technical solutions are updated very quickly and, unfortunately, this is something that not only Ukraine is learning, but also the enemy side. Therefore, according to Šiuparis, more attention to the cooperation between the Armed Forces and scientists is necessary, and a more common systemic vision is needed:

 

"You are the institutions that have potential, vision and skills, and the Army will need the products."

 

Prof. Gintaras Valušis, Director of FTMC, who signed the agreement, hopes that together they will be able to create the necessary innovations in the military high-tech sector. According to professor, this would be a major step forward not only for Lithuania, but also for all allies:

 

"It is really important that the needs of the Army are reflected in the world of science. Living in a geographically small country without special natural resources, we have a lot of creative and inventive people. We may not produce new heavy artillery, but we can certainly demonstrate the little ingenuity that is needed for communication equipment and other areas.

 

A little ingenuity, a little step in high technology makes the army itself, the unit itself, unique - because to understand that technology, we have to do a lot of work that the enemy doesn't know about."

 

 

(Dr. Tomas Žalandauskas, BG Alvydas Šiuparis and Prof. Gintaras Valušis. Photo: FTMC)

 

Some of the areas under development at FTMC that could have defence applications are "hot topics" such as specific sensors or next-generation communication systems. Also there are security systems, equipment testing, various parameter verification or the introduction of artificial intelligence into systems that have so far lacked it. FTMC is also strong in developing intelligent algorithms for image and signal processing.

 

Another important area where FTMC has a strong collaboration with the Armed Forces is the development of smart military uniform in the Department of Textile Technologies for better camouflage or to avoid being detected by radar.

 

Meanwhile, Dr. Tomas Žalandauskas, Director of BPTI Institute, which works extensively in the defence industry, says that Lithuania should play an important role in the development of defence technologies:

 

"Sooner or later, we will reach the goal where the Armed Forces will not only be a user of defence systems, but also a developer. And this function will be very clearly understood how it is understood by the US, German, Dutch and other militaries.

 

I also hope that we will slowly realise that there is no single national defence industry at the moment - there are actually parts of the world where we have allies. In those parts, the defence industry and the research institutions are cooperating, jointly developing scientific products.

 

I believe that we will have Lithuanian components in all major weapon systems and we will become co-owners of weapon systems, not just consumers."

 

 

 

The cooperation agreement between the Lithuanian Armed Forces and FTMC and BPTI does not create any financial obligations. According to the Armed Forces, the research institutions will finance the selected projects from their own resources and, if necessary and appropriate, will be able to use national or international programmes (e.g. MILInvest, the European Defence Fund) to support research and experimental development in the field of defence technologies.

 

The Army's report also states that such cooperation is likely to provide scientific institutions with the necessary know-how for the development of relevant defence solutions and to facilitate the establishment of a strong presence in the international arms market, while equipping the Lithuanian Armed Forces with national innovative solutions in the long term.