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The plan defines the armed forces development goals, the capacities to be developed that are to be revised every four years and the development priorities and guidelines in the medium-term.

In view of the international and regional security situation, the capacities of the Latvian army to be developed as priorities in the medium-term are early warning, air space surveillance, air defense, mobility and counter-mobility, land force capacity and host nation support.

The development plan will be implemented with the funding allocated for defense in the Latvian national budget. In 2015 the Latvian government resolved that the defense budget is to be increased gradually to 1.4% of GDP in 2016, to 1.7% in 2017 and to 2% in 2018 and the following years. Latvia's defense budget in 2016 is EUR 367.86 mln euros, but next year it is planned at EUR 449 mln or 1.7% of GDP.

In the medium-term, it is planned that about 20% of the defense budget will be spent on equipment and over 8% will be invested in infrastructure development.

On June 16 this year the Latvian parliament approved the National Defense Concept defining the main strategic principles of the national defense and outlining the key steps to strengthen the national defense and to develop national capacity.