Lithuanian President Suggests Stationing US Patriot Missile Systems in Baltics

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said Thursday that obtaining US Patriot missile systems would be beneficial for the Baltic region, especially with regard to ensuring security.

VILNIUS (Sputnik) – Patriot is a surface-to-air missile defense system equipped with radars, command-and-control technology and multiple types of interceptors. The system is able to detect, identify and defeat tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, drones, advanced aircraft and other threats.

"Quickness and speed of response to air threat are sometimes very important so it would be good to have such military equipment in the Baltic region, it would ensure the higher security level to all our countries," Grybauskaite told journalists while visiting NATO’s Tobruq Legacy 2017 military exercises held in northern Lithuania's city of Siauliai.

Lithuania’s president noted that the countries in the region needed to coordinate their defense facilities to compliment, rather than duplicate, one another.

Tobruq Legacy is NATO’s largest Surface-Based Air-Defence (SBAD) exercise involving 2,200 personnel and more than 800 vehicles from 13 countries. The drills, led by the US air defense artillery, are being carried out in several locations throughout the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Romania. The exercises began on July 11 and are scheduled to conclude on Saturday.

On July 7, the US deployed Patriot missiles in Lithuania for the first time to patricipate in the Tobruq Legacy drills.