Political Science

The Baltic States are situated down the western border of Belarus and the Russian Federation. These states positioned in north-central Europe and border the Baltic Sea on the eastern side. These states include Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Before the Second World War, Finland was regarded by the Nazi Germany as the fourth Baltic country. The Baltic States were colonized by the then U.S.S.R and attained independence in 1991.

Despite being one of the Baltic States, the general reference to the Republic of Lithuania as Baltic does not mean any political connections with the three member states (Malksoo, 2006). The reference is purely geographical because of its location on the eastern edge of the Baltic Sea, in N.E. Europe (see map, Appendix 1). Of the Baltic States, Lithuania is the most populous and largest. Its citizens are neither Germanic nor Slavic. Its colonization by both Russia and Germany coupled with subsequent association with Poland has greatly influenced the religious beliefs and other practices of Lithuania. This essay shall discuss the defense system of Lithuania.

Lithuanias Defense System
Lithuanias defense structure is founded on the logic of maximum unconditional defense directed by the countrys national security policy. This strategy is aimed at preparing the Lithuanian community for general protection and further integrates the nation into Western defense and security systems. Being a member state of NATO- North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Lithuania fully supports the model of collective defense and its policies recognize the role of NATO in guaranteeing European security. Due to this, Lithuania participates in international military and UN peace keeping missions within Europe and other NATO member states.

The Ministry of Defense has been mandated with the role of organizing combat forces, intelligence, and rescue and search operations and to some extent manages the finances dedicated for national defense and security. The nation has approximately 20,000 military troops in both active duty and reserve. Lithuania currently cooperates with Latvia and Estonia in joint naval operations along the Baltic Sea and may in future contribute for other NATO needs and responses when it enters trilateral Baltic land accords (Malksoo, 2006).

Lithuanias Military
A country needs a military to protect its citizens for internal and external aggression. Owing to the atrocities that characterized the seceding of Lithuania from Russia, the need for an armed force imperative. Apparently Lithuania has a military force made up of approximately 15,000 active officers. About one fifth of the army personnel masquerade as civilians and get some assistance from a hundred thousand reserve forces (Sarunsa, 2009). The Interior Ministry supervises the over 5,000 border guards who have the overall responsibility of defending the countrys territories, custom duties and issuance of passports and together with the navy, they combat piracy, drug trafficking and smuggling. The Lithuanian Armed Forces comprises of The Navy, The Air Force, The Land Force, The Special Operations unit and the National Defense Volunteer Forces.

The Lithuanian Land Force
The main defense force of a country is its land force. Accordingly the main unit if Lithuania land force is the Iron Wolf Mechanized Infantry Brigade made up of an artillery battalion, support and logistics units and four infantry battalions (Sarunsa, 2009). The land force is currently in the process of acquiring modern defense equipment and is projected to fully meet this objective by 2012. Some of the sophisticated armament in the force includes the German Koch  Heckler G36 guns, armored personnel vehicles and infantry fighting carriers. It is projected that by 2014, 10 percent of these Land Forces at any given instant could be given international assignments whereas 50 percent of the forces would be geared up for deployment outside Lithuania.

The Lithuanian Naval Force
The naval force is a small force of about 800 personnel and its main defense operations are the maritime and coastal surveillance. To effectively carry out this operation, it has several mines countermeasures, high speed submarines and patrol boats, corvettes among other equipment. This force is divided into three major squadrons namely the Combat Ship, the Mine Countermeasures and, the Patrol Boat Squadron. To boost up its naval operations, the Lithuanian Navy has acquired two Mine countermeasure warships from the U.K to replace its aging vessels and patrol boats.

The Lithuanian Air Force
Lithuania has an aged fleet of military jets and helicopters. Generally its air force is a weak one. The aviation base of the Air Force is on a modernization mission in order to conform to the NATO standards by replacing the aging Russian helicopters, jet fighters and aircrafts. The Air Force works with the other military departments such as the Navy in providing support for sea rescue and search operations. Its other functions include aerospace surveillance, control, Air Force and Air Base equipment and armament repair. Most of Lithuanias air space is currently controlled, patrolled and manned by jet fighters belonging to other NATO member states. These fighters are however based at one of Lithuanias air bases.

National Defense Volunteer Forces
Another important defense unit is the National Defense Volunteer Forces (NDVF). It forms an essential aspect of the Lithuanian defense forces. The minister of National Defense is the one with authority of appointing the commander of NDVF. The NDVF is created on the basis of administrative boundaries. Accordingly, it comprises of companies arranged into battalions operating within particular territorial defense brigades. There is a regular military officer in every NDVF unit as well as a sketchy cadre that is in control of training activities and administrative duties. The remaining NDVF personnel are composed of volunteers who work without a salary. These volunteers have in the past taken part in successfully international missions in Afghanistan, Iraq as well as in Balkan countries.

Special Operations Forces
The Special Operations Forces (SOF) of Lithuania has been operating since 2002, though not officially recognized. However, in April 2008, owing to the amendments carried on National Defense System structure as well as the military service law, SOF was officially recognized. The main force of SOF has its basis on the Special Purpose Service, these comprises of the Great Jaeger Battalion as well as the Combat Divers Service (CDS).  The SOF has a highly flexible organization structure making it possible for it to easily create squadrons meant to undertake demanding operations as well as missions. In cases where the Lithuania law enforcements agencies lacks the capacity to deal with security attacks such as terrorist attack, the agencies can call upon the SOF to  deal with such cases (Viktorija, 2006).

Analysis of Lithuania military
Lithuania is a member of NATO, which it joined in 2004 and thus supports the approach of collective defense. Its national policy acknowledges the superiority of NATO as the body to ensure security in Europe. The objective of Lithuania defense force policy is forming a military force that is able to make contributions to international operations and missions through NATO, the UN and any other international body. At the same time, the objective of the military is to continue integrating Lithuania forces into western defense systems. The Lithuania defense ministry has the duty of managing combat forces, carrying out search and rescue missions as well as intelligence.  Even though the government is committed in reducing the military expenditure to less than 2 of its GDP, it has not achieved this objective.

Lithuania has about 10,000 active military officers together with 8,000 reserve officers. The central part of the Lithuania military is the Iron Wolf Motorized Infantry Brigade, this comprises of five battalions backed by suitable support staff elements.  The air force has 17 fixed wing airplanes and 9 helicopters, making it not to be a very strong force.  The Lithuania Home Guard is divided into 5 districts.

The Lithuania Border Police comprises of 5,400 guards, and is under the interior ministry. Accordingly, the police have the duty of maintaining border security, checking passports and carrying out other customs duties. Though the border police have tried to ensure that no trafficking and smuggling activities takes place within the boundaries of Lithuania, they have not been able to completely fight this vice.

In order to improve its security and protect its borders, Lithuania security forces works together with security forces of Estonia as well as Latvia in joint security operations. Accordingly, they have formed a joint naval patrol squadron. There are plans as well by the Lithuania government to make contribution to a trilateral Baltic land security force, that can be used as a element of NATO International Security Assistance Force(ISAF) in future operations (Renatas, 2006).

Generally, Lithuanias military force is still evolving as the county tries to create a force that can match NATO standards, it will certainly take some time bearing in mind that military equipments requires huge amounts of money to acquire them,  more so, training  highly effective force is as well expensive and time consuming. But the needs of the Lithuania in terms of security are adequately catered for.

Conclusion
Lithuania is one of the Baltic States, it is found at the north-eastern part of Europe. Its neighbors include Latvia, Poland and Russia.  The country seceded from the Soviet Union in 1990 and since then, it has been able to form a military force capable of protecting it both from internal and external security threats. As noted by Sarunsa (2009) the armed forces are made up of approximately 15, 000 active officers. About one fifth of the army personnel masquerade as civilians and get some assistance from a hundred thousand reserve forces. The naval force of Lithuania is made of about 800 personnel and its main defense operations are the maritime and coastal surveillance. The air force of Lithuania is weak and there is efforts to improve it to reach the NATO accepted standards.  In order to boost its security Lithuania has The National Defense Volunteer Forces (NDVF), which forms an essential aspect of the Lithuanian defense forces. The military is under-equipped and has outdated weaponry accordingly the government of Lithuania has undertaken to modernize its military equipments to be to certain set standards. The security protection of Lithuania is boosted by the fact that Lithuania is member of NATO. It can be deduced that, the defense force of Lithuania is well organized. Though it has not reached the required standards, it is slowly getting there.