In Lithuania, Rheinmetall and KMW have established a company to maintain the armored vehicles

The German companies Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) have jointly set up a system for servicing the military equipment in Lithuania.

This was stated in the Rheinmetall press release.

The new enterprise will provide logistic support in Lithuania primarily for combat vehicles of both the Lithuanian Armed Forces and armored vehicles of other NATO countries’ contingents stationed in the Baltic States.

The joint venture “Lithuania Defense Services” is located in the settlement of Jonava in the central part of Lithuania.

“The partners’ presence on location means that NATO units would benefit from shorter reaction times and improved supply chains due to expanded capacity in the region,” said the statement.

Each of the two partners owns 50% of the shares of the joint venture.

The modern maintenance and logistics center is stationed at an area of about 12,000 square meters.

The location was chosen because of the proximity of “Rukla” – the largest military base in Lithuania where the NATO combat group “Lithuania” is located, as well as due to the direct access to the railways.

One of the main tasks of the company would include the maintenance of “Vilkas” (Lithuanian version of the “Boxer” combat vehicles) combat vehicles delivered to Lithuania.

It will also serve other combat vehicles stationed in the region that would be arriving as part of the force rotation.

These include other variants of “Boxer,” “PUMA,” “Bergepanzer,” various versions of “Leopard-2” tanks, and 155-mm PzH-2000 self-propelled howitzers.

According to Western experts, Rheinmetall and KMW decided to create “Lithuania Defense Services” at a good moment, because in March, Laurinas Kaschiunas, Head of the National Security and Defense Committee of the Sejm announced that Lithuania would be ready to station at least 7,000 NATO troops by the end of the year.