The evaluation exercise which will be running till May 18 will put to test the EU BG staff's readiness to plan and carry out a spectrum of crisis response operations. The exercise aimed at evaluating the readiness of the EU BG's manoeuvre units, including the Lithuanian company, will take place on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire (UK).

The majority of the Lithuanian military assigned for standby in the EU BG are members of King Mindaugas Motorised Infantry Battalion. Lithuania will also post military officers to various positions in the EU BG's headquarters. The assigned Lithuanian servicemembers will be armed with GLOCK17 pistols, G36 assault rifles, FN MAG general-purpose machine guns, Browning M-50 heavy machine guns, Carl Gustav anti-tank projectors and Javelin anti-tank missile systems.

During the standby period Lithuanian military personnel serving as part of the EU BG will maintain high readiness in their permanent deployment location in Lithuania. In case of activation, the EU BG will be ready for deployment on the ground within 5-10 days and will be sustainable for 30-120 days.

This EU BG will be on standby concurrently with Lithuania's Presidency of the Council of the European Union. One of Lithuania's priorities in line with the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) for the EU Presidency period is strengthening the EU's crisis response capabilities – the EU Battlegroups.

Since reaching the Full Operational Capability of the EU Battlegroup Concept in 2005 the EU BGs have been prevented from being used by complex bureaucratic procedures required for their deployment. For that reason Lithuania will promote a more flexible use and extended standby periods of the EU BGs with a view of increasing their cost efficiency, and will propose a more equal burden sharing related to the EU BGs' activation among the EU members.

The EU BGs are rapidly deployable and multinationally formed joint capabilities enabling the EU to provide a speedy response to emerging crises. Similarly to NATO's Response Force, the EU BGs are made up of military units assigned by the EU member states for six-month standby periods. One EU Battlegroup is approximately 2 thousand-strong.

This is not the first standby in an EU BG Lithuania will be carrying out. Personnel of the Lithuanian Armed Forces were assigned to complete half-year duty periods in the EU BGs in 2010 and 2011. In early 2015 Lithuania is expected to contribute to the Nordic Battlegroup (NBG) led by Sweden.

Ministry of National Defense

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